A somewhat eventful trip through Hoenn
by Mind Fox
Summary: Nicholas Maple is getting ready to get his first pokémon. Brook the Ralts is in desperate need of a trainer. The two will cross fates, and go on a journey wilder than either of them expected.
1. Episode 1

**So before I post chapter one a few things to keep in mind.**

 **This is not based on any one canon. Instead, this is a fusion of the games, anime, some popular fanon, and some personal head cannon.**

 **I have not played the gen 3 remakes. In fact, a part of my inspiration for writing this story is wanting to play alpha sapphire and not having the 3ds to do so. As such any elements that were introduced in the remakes are being written by someone who's only experienced them second hand.**

 **One last thing, every line break means a change in POV between our two heroes.**

 **Other than that we're clear to start the show.**

 **Episode 1: A roundabout way to get a starter**

* * *

I felt a yawn come as I sat in underneath the shade of the tree with a book in my hand. It was just hot enough, and the breeze just cool enough to hit the right temperature where all you wanted to do was sleep. After a few seconds of fighting it, I decided to just give in and let the yawn out. After doing so I glanced over at the group of kids crowded around the gate to my house.

"You know that he's not getting here for another hour right?" I asked as I took stock of the group. They were all pretty young, maybe a year or two younger than me. In other words, they were the perfect age to start Pokémon training.

"We don't want to miss him when he gets here." One of the kids responded.

I sighed, partly because I had to deal with my cousin's fans, but also because I had just told a crowd of tweens 'kids'.

I was not an old man in kid's body, no matter what my sister said.

"Listen I don't really get the big deal here. Uncle Norman lives down the street from here, why is it such a big deal that his kid is coming back home."

"Are you dense?" I flinched back a bit as one of the kids, a girl with blond hair, cut me a glare. "Brendan is one of the strongest trainers In Hoenn."

"And he's from this town, this tiny little town. He's pretty much the coolest trainer from here ever." Said another kid.

"Like I said, gym leader, who is living here right now, just down the street." I pointed both of my fingers in the direction of Uncle Norman's house. The kids had the good sense to at least look a little embarrassed.

"Well, I guess a gym leader is pretty cool." Said the first kid while looking away. Then his eyes widened and he turned to look right at me. "But not as cool as bringing down both team Magma and Aqua."

And that was enough to set off the rest of the group again. I watched them as they excitedly chatted and talked amongst themselves. I rolled my eyes and went back to my book. It was actually quite the page-turner. A breakdown of the forty or so most popular pokémon in the Hoenn region championship, as well as their most effective counters.

I chuckled as I read an entry telling me that the perfect counter to Metagross was Camerupt. Steven had torn his way through both team's main forces on live TV. His Metagross had taken down scores of pokémon that day, Camerupts included.

Both my uncle and my cousin, in the few times I actually had a chance to talk to the latter, had always stressed the same thing. A cunning and competent trainer, dedicated training and a strong bond with a pokémon could overcome almost anything.

Including type advantages. Of course, it was still a bad idea to send out a fire type against a water type. Having these things just turned it from an instant loss to an extremely tricky and difficult battle.

I kept reading, doing my best to ignore the gaggle of fans just a few feet away from me when I heard a noise from above.

I closed eyes and turned my head upwards.

"Please don't be doing something dramatic, please don't be doing something dramatic."

I opened my eyes and watched as Brendan jumped off his Salamence, spin through the air, before getting caught by his Salamence right before he hit the ground.

The teenager and dragon slowly descended to the ground, before landing directly in front of both the tree I was sitting under, the front door, and the fans on the other side of the gate.

"Good job." He said as he petted the Salamence. The dragon purred as Brendan got off and returned him to his Pokéball. He glanced over at me and waved. "Hey, Nikki."

"Don't call me Nikki," I said on reflex. Brendan had been shortening my name from Nicolas to Nikki for years now. I had long given up on actually trying to stop him, but it felt weird just not saying anything in response. "Did you have to come in on the dragon?"

"What did it scare you little guy?" He said in a joking voice. I rolled my eyes at his attempt at humor.

"No, but it did rile up your paparazzi over there," I said as I pointed at the group at the gate with my thumb.

"Paparazzi, what are you," He paused as he looked over my shoulder before suddenly taking a step back. He had apparently not noticed the crowd gathered at the gate as he flew in. "Who are they."

"Brendan over here."

"Show us you're Pokémon"

"Tell us about how you fought team Magma and Aqua."

I smirked as I got up from under the tree and walked over to Brendan. I reached up to put as much of my arm over his shoulder as I could.

"Why they're your adoring fans," I said with a smile before suddenly switching back to a neutral expression. "They've been here all morning waiting for you and Professor Birch."

"Oh," He looked over at them and waved lamely. "Uh, hi?"

I grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him inside.

"Wasn't about to let that go on any longer." I slammed the door behind me as we took off our shoes.

"Don't be so hard on them. You used to be just like them. Hey, remember when Wallace passed by a few years ago and you were begging to see him." He told me as we walked into the hallway

I smiled in spite of myself.

"And I begged and begged but in the end, I got sick that day. I still remember sulking about it for like, a year afterward." I continued as we got into the living room.

"It was more like a week."

Brendan's face lit up in a smile as he swung around the couch.

"Ali." He said as he pulled my older sister up from her laying position and into a hug. "Good to see you."

"Good to see you two Brendan, now let me go back to watching my show or I'll have Kiki eat you."

Kiki was my sister's only Pokémon, an absolutely terrifying Banette. At least until you had a chance to learn that she was a complete sweetheart that wouldn't hurt a fly.

Brendan had not had that chance. By the way that Kiki was currently floating behind Brendan with her mouth wide open, I would bet that he would learn quickly. I left the room and headed into the kitchen before I had to watch the obvious conclusion.

A surprisingly girly shriek for a fifteen-year-old boy told me that my cousin had finally turned around. The laughter from my sister only confirmed it. I rolled my eyes as I made myself a sandwich. Nothing too fancy, just some lettuce and ham.

I thought for a before sticking my head back out into the living room.

"You guys want sandwiches?"

"Sure, Nikki."

"Thanks, Bro, oh and put some of that spicy mustard on mine."

I got to work on the sandwiches as Brendan joined me in the kitchen.

"So," I said, sure about what he wanted to talk about but not sure what to say. I instead grabbed a knife and started cutting the sandwiches slowly.

"So." He copied before following up. "Are you going to do it this year?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "It's not that I don't want to, what kid doesn't want to try the gym circuit at least once. It's just that…"

"You're not sure you would be able to handle a Pokémon."

I put the knife I was using down on the plate and gripped the front of the counter.

"Other people's Pokémon I can deal with just fine. But for some reason the idea of having one of my own freaks me out. My brain just goes wild with all the ways I could mess up. No idea why."

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey don't worry. The Professor is coming over for a bit before the big event. He's bringing some starters with him. Those little guys are easy to train, perfect for beginners. I should know."

That was the other thing, the thing that Brendan didn't know about. The other reason I didn't leave on my journey a year ago like any other kid that age.

I didn't want to start a journey and be known as Brendan's cousin. I knew that the second I started as a trainer I would have eyes all over me, judging me to see how I stacked up against the trainer that had brought down both Team Aqua and Magma.

I figured that waiting a year would clear things up. Give Brendan's fame a chance to wear off. Instead, he was going around with Professor Birch, helping him host starting trainer events all over Hoenn.

Like the one that was due to happen here in Petalburg in a couple hours. All those kids waiting outside the gates would get their choice of Mudkip, Torchic or Treecko.

Honestly, I had no idea which one to pick.

On second thought, anything but torchic. I was already worried about people comparing me to my cousin, why make it worse by picking the same starter as him.

"Hey what are you guys walking bout?" I heard my sister call from the living room.

"We better get back out there, The Professor will be here soon."

I smiled and walked out of the kitchen, plate of sandwiches in hand.

* * *

This sucks. This grass, that tree, that berry bush. All of it sucked.

A sudden growl left me clutching my stomach in pain. I hadn't eaten since I left home almost three days ago. Not a real meal anyway.

Half a berry that left me throwing up what little was left in my stomach didn't count. Stupid mom, always peeling the berries for us like we were babies. Not too helpful now that I had no idea what any of those edible berries looked like.

A part of me wanted to go back. To turn around and run crying back home. To run into my mother's arms.

To have everyone laugh at me. To be told, "Of course you came back, you're just a stupid little girl can't do anything for herself."

I quickly dismissed that part of me. I had a plan, all I had to do was follow through on it.

I had to find a trainer. I had to get strong, strong enough to fend for myself, strong enough to prove to everyone that I wasn't some pathetic weakling.

I clenched my tiny pale fists as I remembered all those nights of mom telling us horror stories. Of abusive trainers and miserable conditions and all the terrible things that happened when young Pokémon ran away from their parents.

And then I had actually seen one. A Trainer had passed by near our glade. Mom had told me to hide, to remain ignorant of the truth. I had tried, but I slipped and fell out of the tree I was in.

I was terrified, frozen in fear as I got myself ready to be caught in a Pokéball.

Instead, his Pokémon had made space for me near the fire and treated me to some food. It tasted amazing, better than anything I'd ever have before. By the end, I started feeling something inside of me that I had never felt before. I didn't know what it was, but it felt nice so I didn't say anything. Instead, I stopped eating and asked them about their trainer.

It tuned out that they had nothing but kind things to say about their trainer. They told me about how they had all grown stronger through travel with him. How they had become a sort of family through their travels.

And what travels they were. The volcano to the north, the islands chains to the east, the vast cities that the humans built. I left their campsite wanting to see them all.

And then mom had found me.

I'd seen her angry before, but never at me. I had wanted to tell her what happened, how I had gotten caught by accident. But no, I must have done it on purpose. She sent me to the small tree hallow called home without dinner. Not too much of an issue to be honest. I had already the food the trainer and his Pokémon had offered. But she didn't know that, she didn't care.

She never cared about us. She only kept us around because she liked having something to control.

I punched the tree next to me only to grimace in pain. Trees are hard, almost forgot about that. I looked up at the tree and frowned. I had a better way than punching. My mother was a liar and a nag but she wasn't crazy enough to lie to me about the seven steps.

The first step, calm my emotions. I closed my eyes and focused on calming my emotions. I let my anger and rage fall away, at least for the moment.

The second step, steady my breathing. I took deep breaths, allowing myself to fall into a rhythm of in and out that matched my heartbeat.

The third step, feel the power flowing around me. As my breathing steadied I opened myself to it. A vast sea of power that engulfed the world, linking all life together. I felt it flow, cascading over my head, running down my body and coursing past my legs. Going in all direction yet maintaining itself in the same place, remaining ever-present.

The fourth step, allow the power to flow into me in controlled streams. I beckoned it to me, allowing it enter my body through my horns.

The fifth step, carefully direct the flow. Five streams flowed out from each horn. One pair to my brain, a pair to each of my eyes, and a pair to each of my hands.

The sixth step, pool the power. I fought back against the streams as they flowed through me. They wanted to burst, to overflow and flood my body. I concentrated on keeping my breathing steady as the psychic energy pooled into the three body parts I needed. My brain, to manage the flow. My eyes, to aim the flow, and finally my hands.

"I am not weak," I muttered to myself.

My hands, for the final and seventh step. I opened my eyes, now glowing blue, and unleashed the power pooled within me all at once. I felt it like a torrent, pouring out of me in a way that almost felt painful, like my arms were about to burst open from the inside.

A wave of invisible force struck the tree, causing it to slightly rustle drop a few leaves.

I frowned, wondering what I was doing wrong. My brothers told me that they had been able to do so much more when they were my age. I was following all the steps, what was I doing wrong?

I sighed in defeat. I couldn't even take down a single stupid tree. I took a deep breath and looked around the small area I was in. There was a bush to my right, some tall grass behind me and there was a small stream to my left. The tree itself was a normal looking tree with a few mushrooms growing from the bottom.

Something was missing. I looked around and saw a rock with a jagged edge. I grabbed it carefully and walked over to the tree. I reached up as high as I could and making sure to not cut myself, carved an X into the tree bark.

I took a step back and admired my handiwork.

I turned and kept heading north.

Or at least I was about to when I felt a sudden cramping pain in my gut. I grabbed my belly and groaned audibly. I noticed a nearby tree that had a small groove in the bark.

Seeing no reason not, too I huddled over to the tree and sat in the groove.

"Just a little while," I said to myself in a mumbled promise before fading away to sleep.

* * *

The event was underway and I wasn't having any of it. I just wasn't clicking with any of these little guys. That isn't to say that they hated me or anything, but the starters that Professor Birch had brought with him had latched themselves on the rest of the kids right from the start.

"They can tell you're nervous," Brendan took a seat on the park bench, right next to me. After spending twenty minutes trying to get close to a Pokémon, I had instead found myself taking a seat and watching everyone else.

They had picked a good time and place for this. A little park on the southernmost part of town that eventually blended into the woods on a bright and sunny day. A perfect and idyllic setting to think back on when you remembered getting your first Pokémon.

"Pokémon are pretty good at sensing emotion, especially those raised by humans. Everyone else is bursting with excitement and they feel that."

"Oh, so all I have to do is not be nervous. Let me just flip the switch in my brain that lets me control my nervousness."

Brendan sat in silence, mulling something over.

"Okay so maybe stressing you out over being less nervous is a bit counterproductive."

"You think?" I chuckled.

"Listen, if you don't have a Pokémon by the end of the day, maybe I can help you out."

"I don't know," I said nervously, thoughts of not wanting to get stuck in Brendan's shadow looming over me, much like said shadow I was trying to not fall under.

"Its fine, you see I…"

Whatever it was that he was about to say was cut off by a panicked cry. Brendan and I looked at each other before jumping off the bench and running towards the yelling.

We were able to pinpoint the source easy enough, a small crowd centering on a girl with a treecko riding on her head. She looked out of breath like she had just been running. Her eyes widened as she watched us approach.

As we got closer I noticed Professor Birch running towards us out of the corner of my eye.

"What happened?" Brendan asked the girl with the treecko on her head. Both she and the poor wood gecko looked deeply disturbed.

"Me and Trevor saw one of the Pokémon wander into the woods. We figured that it wouldn't be too hard to bring it back so we went in after it. But when the torchic noticed that we were chasing it, it ran off. So we kept going until we saw something in the woods." She began to shiver.

"What was it?" The Professor asked her, the jovial man sounding more serious then I had ever heard him sound before.

"I don't know, all I saw was a pair of huge eyes coming from the shadows." She clutched her arms around her body. "We ran away from it, but I think we got separated. The next thing I knew, I had made it back to the park and Trevor was gone."

"Give me a little room please," Brendan asked as he dug into a small pocket in his bag and took out a Pokéball. The people closest to us backed away as Brendan tossed the ball to the ground. There was a bright flash of light and his Salamence appeared. "Come here." He beckoned the girl to get closer.

"Yes?" She said softly as she shuffled up to the older trainer and his dragon.

"What does Trevor look like?"

"He's a little taller than me, with short brown hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a white shirt with blue jeans, oh and a blue hat."

Brendan looked over to Salamence.

"You got all that?"

The dragon nodded.

"Go." He rubbed his head before turning to the rest of us. "Clear some more space, He's going to need a running start to take off."

The crowd followed his directions, forming a sort of runway of clear space. Salamence backed up a bit before breaking out into a run. A few seconds late, the dragon was in the air.

"He knows how to find me if he finds Trevor. I'm heading into the woods to look for myself."

"I'll stay here," Professor Birch said, "In case he makes it back by himself. If he does, I'll contact you. I still have your nav number."

Brendan nodded at the older man and took off into the woods. Without thinking, I ran after him.

We had just gotten out of sight of the park when he looked over his shoulder and suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" I ask as I toss my own glance behind me.

"Why are you here?"

I snap back.

"What do you think? I'm following you."

"Why?"

"Well, having a second pair of eyes couldn't hurt. Also never seen a real Pokémon battle before, I figured watching you in action could help me get over my nervousness."

He stood there for a moment, just watching me. Eventually, he nodded.

"Okay, but stick close to me. And whatever you do, do not put yourself in any danger."

* * *

I felt something on my chest as I slept. It felt light at first like someone had just put a small rock on top of me, probably my sister. I ignored it and kept sleeping.

Then the weight began to grow. I breathed heavier as I felt it grow on top of my chest. Every time I breathed in, my chest would expand and the weight would get a little easier to bare. But when I breathed out, the weight fell on me even harder, digging into my lungs.

After a little bit, I realized that I wasn't breathing anymore.

I woke up, scrambling to get off my back and onto my feet. I clutched my chest, the heavy feeling still there. I glanced down, trying to find whatever it was that was causing the weight.

"There's… nothing… there." I let out in between gasps. I looked back up, scanning the area around me for something, anything, that could be causing this.

There was something off about the woods. I wasn't sure what it was, but it was there.

"Have to think…" I said as I tried to figure out what was wrong. I thought back to what the forest looked like before I fell asleep. A thought struck me. I looked down at my hand.

Normally my hand is a grayish white. I knew this, I saw it every day, and it was always that color.

But not tonight, not right now. Now my hand was a strange slight purplish hue to its color. The same purplish hue that I know realized that painted everything around me.

I looked around, searching for any spot where the purple wasn't as strong. I almost gave up when I saw it, a tree off in the distance that wasn't purple.

I urged my legs to move, pain firing through almost my entire body. I tried to ignore the burning pain, instead focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

Step.

Step.

Step.

With every step forward, I felt the pain in my lungs subside even as the pain in my legs and stomach grew. I had to keep moving. Even if the pain made the tears flow from my eyes, even if it got so unbearable that I wanted to give up and collapse. I had to for one reason.

This pain in my legs, I knew it would pass. I would get away from this purple hue, and be able to rest again.

But the pain in my lungs would not pass. It would stay until it got too much and I wouldn't be able to breathe.

I wasn't about to drown in the middle of the woods with no water in sight.

I was halfway there, the pain in my lung almost bearable now. I was so close. I knew I couldn't stop. But I wanted to so badly. I wanted to stop now, to tell myself that I was far away enough.

I knew I wasn't. Instead, I thought back to that night. To all those places that those trained Pokémon had told me about. About the town above the sea, the volcano to the north, the great desert, Meteor Falls, the town inside the volcano. I wanted to see them all.

And I couldn't see any of them if I died right here. So I kept going.

I thought back to my Mother. About how weak she thought I was, how useless she thought I was. If I died so soon after leaving home, she would find me. She would find my cold corpse and laugh.

I would come back, I would come back and show them all. I would be powerful, unstoppable, and no one would ever treat me like a useless child ever again.

I passed the tree and the pain in my lungs went away altogether. I calmed myself, taking deep breaths to get the purple air out of my lungs. I breathed in and out, letting it all filter out.

I let out a smile as I felt the empty feeling inside before collapsing.

* * *

We'd been going at a brisk pace through the woods for a while now. Part of me wanted to ask Brendan about the way we were searching, but I found myself too nervous to ask him.

Instead, I thought of the Pokémon that I knew Brendan had and what he could possibly have on him. I already knew that he had his Salamence scouting the woods from above. I would be shocked if he didn't have his starting Blaziken with him, but it made sense to keep him close. Milotic wouldn't be that useful for searching the woods. Grumpig was strong, but not fast enough to search the woods like Salamence.

The rest of his team fluctuated enough that I had no clue what could be in his last two slots.

In short, if he had any Pokémon on him that could have made the search easier, then he would have used them by now.

I grimaced, the forest was huge and stretched to the coast. With such a large search area, finding a single person and Pokémon was going to be next to impossible.

The best we could hope for would be for Brendan's Salamence to find the kid.

The almost inaudible sound of someone calling for help off in the distance behind me told me otherwise. I narrowed my eyes and debated just leaving him to his doom.

Of course, that would be wrong, for many reasons.

"Brendan," I told him as I stopped running. He turned around, looking impatient. "I think I heard something behind us, it might be the person we're looking for."

"Lead the way." He said seriously.

We only just started heading back when I heard the voice again. It was definitely someone calling for help.

"You hear it this time?" I asked Brendan who just nodded.

We reached a small, empty clearing about a minute later.

"Where is he?" I asked aloud as we looked around the clearing.

"Up here."

We both looked up. Up in one of the trees circling the clearing was the kid we had been searching for. Cradled in his arms was the missing Pokémon, cooing and looking at us with what looked like relief.

"What are you doing up there?" Brendan asked the question that I also wanted answered.

"I'm hiding."

"From what?" I asked him this time, hoping that he would give an actual answer this time.

"I don't know. But there was something in the woods, something dangerous."

So much for an actual answer.

"Well, you're safe now," I call out. "I doubt anything in these woods is strong enough to take on a champion level trainer."

"I guess." He answered back as he started shuffling around on the branch. He carefully placed Torchic on his back so that the pokémon could grab on as he climbed down. It was a slow, but not overly slow process, watching the kid get down from the tree.

Now that I had a good look at him, he didn't seem worse for wear. A few scuff marks but aside from that he was fine.

"Let's head back to the park," Brendan told him as he dusted off the little bit of dirt on him.

As we walked back in silence, I heard something off in the distance. It sounded a little like someone crying.

"Wait a second, I hear something," I told the other two. "Someone else might have wandered in from town."

Brendan nodded and followed me, a pokéball in his hand.

After a few moments, the forest parted away to reveal a small white figure laying on the ground. I heard the same crying sound come from it and I ran over. I knelt over the poor thing, putting one of my hands on the ground next to it.

"It's a Ralts," Brendan commented. "A tiny one too, even by their standards. It must be young."

"Should we take them back with us?" I grimaced as Brendan shook his head.

"If it's this young then their Mother should be close by. Getting between a fully grown Gardevoir and her child would be extremely dangerous."

As he said that, I felt someone tugging on my hand. I looked down and saw the ralts pulling themselves up using my arm. It looked up, giving me a look of adoration. I saw small tears forming in corner of their eyes. It let out a squeal and hugged my arm, letting out a sound that might have been laughter.

"I think it likes me," I said in disbelief.

"Well, that's, a thing. Well even if it likes you it's still way too young for capture."

"By how much?" I asked as I rubbed the top of the Pokémon's head with my finger.

"No idea, we'd have to ask the Professor when we get back."

"Um, guys?" The two of us turned around. The kid and torchic were turned away from us, looking at something in the woods. "It's back."

Brendan, the ralts and I all froze in place as a feeling of dread washed over me. Like I was about to die. I grasped for my throat, trying to get off whatever it was that was strangling me. When I felt nothing there, I looked down at the ralts.

The poor thing was shivering and holding on tight to my arm. Despite my better judgment, I decided to ignore Brendan. I scooped the ralts up and cradled it in my arms, it felt too cruel to do otherwise. As soon as settled in it poked its head out to watch the trees.

If Brendan wanted to say something, he didn't get the chance. As soon as the feeling of dread passed, a trio of flying things came bursting out of the trees towards us. The three pokémon buzzed in the air as they came right at us. It had a white body with two sets of buzzing orange wings. For some reason, I found myself unable to remember what they were called. The ralts squeaked and ducked down into my arms.

"Wild Masquerain, well that explains some of it," Brendan muttered as he grabbed a pokéball and threw to the ground. His Blaziken burst out in a flash of light. He narrowed his eyes as he watched the three Pokémon flying towards us. "Nikki, Trevor, when you get the chance, run for it. I'll hold them back. If you feel that dread again, ignore it." Brendan told us as his Blaziken raised his leg up and his foot burst into flames. It kicked through the air, making a wall of flames between us and the Masquerain.

"What do you mean ignore it?" I said as I tracked the Masquerain beyond the flames. One of them had stayed in place while the other two had split off in opposite directions to circle around us.

* * *

Well, on one hand, I had found a trainer. On the other hand, I was pretty sure I was about to die.

Mom's nagging tended to be about whatever was annoying her at the moment plus a few staples. One such staple was a warning to not stray too far from the clearing or I would get eaten by the flutterers. I figured that she was lying about that like she lied about everything else. Instead there three of the things flying towards us. I knew the way it worked, Pokémon protected trainers. There was no way I would be able to hold them back.

As I nestled in the trainer's arms, I realized that my only hope of escape would be for the trainer to save me.

So in short, I was as good as doomed. Who would want a Pokémon too weak to protect their own trainer? Once the trainer realized that he had a useless pokémon in its arms, it would portably leave me and run for it. Not that I blamed him.

"I did turn out to be a useless little girl in the end," I muttered to myself as I waited for the end. Instead, I felt a bright flash of white light. I opened my eyes to the sight of flames.

They stood tall and proud, a trainer and his pokémon, the dream that I wanted. There it was, in all of its glory. I could barely hear them over the roar of the flames but I saw the trainer's mouth move and the pokémon move into action. My eyes could barely keep track of him as he almost vanished.

The taller trainer told the trainer holding me something that I couldn't understand. He nodded and took off running along with the third trainer.

Being carried felt weird, but I was too exhausted to care. I felt myself drifting to and away from sleep for a while, but I forced myself to stay awake. The trainer was probably not impressed with me, the last thing I wanted to do was pass out on him.

Which helped when he suddenly stopped in place. I turned to see what it was that stopped us. As soon as I did, passing out stopped being my main concern.

A fourth flutterer right in front of us. It glowed purple and beat its wings towards us. Once again the world became purple. For some reason, it wasn't as bad this time. I only felt a tightish squeeze around my body and neck instead of the overwhelming weight of before. However, I still reached up to instinctively claw at whatever it was that was around my neck.

The fact that I knew that there was nothing there didn't stop me.

The trainer ran from it for some reason. Why didn't he just take out one of his other pokémon? Especially since the flutterer decided to chase us, keeping us within the purple as we ran.

The trainer looked down and said something to me that I couldn't make out. It sounded nice though. Maybe making it this long had impressed him?

The thought gave me strength. I focused on my breathing, trying to calm myself down. I had to make a good showing here.

But it was hard, the flutterer kept chasing us, not giving up. The other trainer who was running with us yelled something and we stopped again. I wondered what had happened when I suddenly went flying.

I landed on a soft patch of grass and looked over at the trainer. My first instinct was that he had made his choice and had decided to drop me. However, instead of seeing the trainer standing over me with a disappointed glare, he had apparently also been knocked down to the ground. Hovering over him was another flutterer that was quickly joined by the one that had been chasing us.

I turned around and saw that the other trainer that had been with us was running away with his pokémon. I growled at him, leaving me behind was one thing but leaving your friend behind was something else.

"Coward," I yelled at him before realizing that there were still two flutterers behind me. I clapped my mouth closed and slowly turned around.

Maybe I had gotten lucky and they hadn't heard me.

The two flutterers staring at me before suddenly hovering over to me told me that my luck sucked.

The droning sound of their wings buzzed in my ears as they hovered above me, their beady eyes drilling into me. The one that had charged the trainer started to glow purple as well.

I felt a familiar feeling as both purple waves washed over me. The strangling feeling was back, made worse by the knowledge that the ones doing it were right in front of me.

A loud yell distracted the flutterers as they both stopped to watch the trainer come running at them. It swung one of its arms at them.

Was… was he trying to get them away for me? Why? Why would he do that?

My questioning was cut short as the flutterers just decided to dart out of his reach. I hoped for a second that they would just go away. Instead, they both glowed purple and I watched in horror as waves of purple engulfed the trainer.

He was forced to the ground, down on all fours. I could see him clench his fists as he gripped the ground. I watched as he tried and failed to get up, to get to his feet, only to collapse completely.

I… I had to do something.

At that moment, I knew what I had to do.

The first step, calm my emotions. The tears in my eyes and the rage in my heart told me that there was no way I was getting this step done. Skipped.

The second step, steady my breathing. I could feel the pounding in my chest. The non-stop throbbing told me that this wasn't happening. Skipped.

The third step, feel the power flowing around me. I gasped as I felt the sea. Unlike the calm ever-present sea from before, the sea was choppy, a stormy sea that almost overwhelmed me.

The fourth step, allow the power to flow into me in controlled streams. If I could have laughed, I would have laughed at the word controlled. I opened my horns to the power, allowing it to flow freely as much as possible.

The fifth step, carefully direct the flow. I felt the power rage inside me. I could barely shape it, let alone direct it.

The sixth step, pool the power. I didn't bother. I had so much power coursing through me that putting more in any particular spot would have been meaningless.

"Get…" I held my arms out at the flutterers. "Away from him!"

Step seven, unleash the psychic might. A bright green wave of psychic power barreled towards one of the flutterers sending one flying and to the ground. Before I had a chance to catch my breath, the other one came at me, an angry look in its eyes.

"Go away," I said as I crossed my arms in front of me and pushed outwards.

A green pulse flew out of me, impacting the flutterer just as it was about to hit me. It went flying just like its friend.

The trainer got up, catching his breath. It said something as it looked at the flutterers on the ground. It sounded stunned, and maybe, hopefully, impressed.

"I… did…it," I said in-between exhausted pants. I let out a wheezing laugh as I collapsed.

* * *

I unfroze as the Ralts fell to the ground.

"Hey, you okay?' I asked as I scooped them up in my hands. I grimaced, the little thing was out cold. My worry was lessened a bit by the goofy grin the ralts had on their face.

I heard a rustling sound come from the woods. I looked up and held the Ralts closer up to me in case I needed to run. I let out a breath that I hadn't even noticed that I had been holding as I saw Brendan emerge from the woods with his Blaziken and Grumpig.

"Nikki are you okay? I rushed over here as soon as soon as I heard that you didn't make it back to the park."

"So Trevor's okay then?" I asked as I suddenly felt weak in the knees. I apparently showed it because Blaziken was by my side in an instant. The fire type caught me before I had a chance to fall.

Grumpig walked up to me and held out her hands. It gave a demanding squeal, signaling that she was going to be holding onto the Ralts from now on. Knowing the motherly pokémon from reputation, I didn't put up a fight as I carefully handed the little one over.

"Let's head back." I tried to walk, my legs shaking with each short step. I barely made it five steps when I almost feel again. Once again Blaziken caught me before I hit the ground.

"Maybe you should let us help you," Brendan suggested as Blaziken helped me walk. I opened my mouth to insist that I was fine when he cut me off. "Most humans aren't really built to take pokémon attacks, let alone one as potentially debilitating as ominous wind. And you didn't take just one. You took multiple, overlapping ominous winds. Anyone would be out of it after something like that."

Realizing that I wasn't getting out of this, I let go of my pride and let everyone help me back to town. By the time we got to the park, Ali and my parents were speaking to Prof Birch. By the looks of it, we had made just in time to save the poor man.

We walked over to the group when we were suddenly ambushed by a worried looking Trevor, an equally worried looking Torchic in his arms.

"You made it! I was super worried." He almost yelled as he looked at me. "What happened? I thought you were right behind me?"

A sudden thought occurred to me.

"Did… did you not notice the fifth Masquerain knocking me to the ground. Because that was a thing that happened. Well unless the fifth one was actually one of the three that Brendan held back then I suppose there would have just been four."

"You're rambling," Brendan said. "You need to get some…"

"Nicholas!" A sudden yell interrupted us as we looked over at the group that was running towards us. Blaziken let me go as I was swept up in a tight hug by my mother.

"Careful Aunt Carol," Brendan told my Mother. "Let him breathe."

"What happened?" My father asked.

"Actually, I have to talk to Prof Birch about that."

"Let's head back to the house." The Professor said before noticing the Ralts in Grumpig's arms. "Who's this?"

"Well, you see… Nikki!"

That was weird, why was Brendan yelling my name in a panic. Also, why was the world at the angle? And why was the ground suddenly so close and oh I'm passing out.

That explains everything.

* * *

The throbbing pain in my head told me that I was awake. I was also somewhere soft, softer than anywhere I had ever felt in my life. I groaned as I rolled onto my stomach. I pushed myself up to a sitting position. I opened my eyes and found myself in a place the likes of which I had never seen before.

I wasn't sure how I would describe it. There were a bunch of weird straight lines everywhere. Everywhere I looked, I saw colors. Most of it was a dull brown that looked like wood all over the room. But aside from that, there were several, small brightly colored objects scattered all over the place. I glanced down and saw that I was sitting on some sort of weird green thing. I pushed it a little and noticed that it sank a little.

"Looks like you woke up." I jumped as a purple figure suddenly appeared in front of me. She was holding a bright, flat shiny object with a few things on top of it. She put the object down on the platform in front of me. One of them appeared to contain a yellowish brown water. It smelled amazing.

"What is that?" I pointed at the stuff.

"Food," She answered sternly as she got something else from the flat object, some sort of shiny stick. She put it in the food and it began to pool inside of it. "Open your mouth."

The food tasted as good as it smelt. It had a deep, tangy flavor that I didn't recognize. There were also small bits of berries in the food, none of which I recognized.

"Okay, I think you've had enough." The figure said.

"Thank you, that's the first thing I've eaten in days."

"Days? That explains a few things." She frowned. "My name is." I suddenly felt a comforting warmth through my body as the mental image of a smooth rock laying in the summer sun appeared in my head. "But my non-psychic friends just call me warmth. What's your name sweetie?"

"Oh, I'm." I sent her my own name, a small brook running along the bottom of a small cliff in the middle of the woods. "I don't really have a spoken name. I've never talked to anyone outside of my family until now."

"I see." She looked worried for some reason. "How about Brook as a name? A pretty name for a pretty little ralts?"

Brook? For a spoken name? I guess that worked. It was my name anyway, might as well use it. Not like I was going to use it often. How likely was I to encounter non-psychics anyway?

"I like it," I said with a nod. My stomach rumbled again, reminding me just how long I'd gone without a good meal before now. "Can I have some more food, please? I want to feel that feeling again."

"What feeling."

I told her about my encounter with a trainer in the woods and finished by sharing with her my memories of that feeling.

She smiled sadly.

"Sure thing, just two things first though."

"What are they?"

"Just two questions, nothing too hard."

"Okay."

"How much does your family normally feed you?"

"Well, I usually get a few peeled berries a day. Mom always peels them for me even when I ask her not to so I don't really know what kind they are."

"How much is a few?"

"Maybe three, sometimes four if I'm lucky. My brothers and mom get way more food though. They say it's because they're bigger so they have to eat more."

"Okay so my second question, how old are you?"

I told her my age and she smiled sadly again. She rubbed the top of my head.

"You did perfectly." She told me before going back to feeding me.

I ate until I felt that feeling again.

"It feels good right?" Warmth asked me.

"Yeah it does, what's this feeling called anyway?"

"It's called feeling full Brook."

"Full? I guess I am full of food." I smiled.

"Do you mind if I ask you another question?"

"It's fine."

"Why were you all on your own?"

"Well remember that team that I told you about. Well after hearing about the…" So I told her everything, my whole story. The days of wandering, my dream to become strong, and then meeting up with the flutterers and the trainers.

"Oh, the Trainer is he okay!" I had completely forgotten about him. Hopefully, he was okay.

"He's fine, he just woke up a little while ago." Warmth told me as she gently pushed me back a bit. I had apparently been leaning forward. "And he's not a trainer, not yet."

"What do you mean 'not yet'? How is he not a trainer? Not only was he super brave when he saved me, he also looked like the trainer I met that night?"

Warmth gave me a look that I didn't really know.

"Do you think that trainer is the name of their species?"

"Is it not?"

"No, the word trainer only refers to those who catch and train pokémon. The name of the species is 'human'."

"Oh."

"Yes oh. So you were planning on asking him to take you on as one of his pokémon?"

"Of course, how else will I get stronger?"

"I think you should start worrying about learning better control before starting on more raw power. I saw what you did to those Masquerain, and to your arms." Her face shifted and her tone became tense. "Just what were you thinking, using your power so dangerously?"

"The trainer, well Human I guess, was in danger. I didn't have time to go through the seven steps so I just skipped some of them."

She looked confused.

"Seven steps?"

"Yeah, the seven steps that psychic pokémon have to follow to use their power."

"Sweetie I'm psychic and I've never heard of these seven steps. Maybe you could explain it to me?"

So I told her about the seven steps I usually took, and how I did things when the flutterers were about to attack the Human.

After I finished she told me to wait there for a little bit while she went to go deal with something.

* * *

"We might need Norman's help for this. Masquerain acting in groups like that, using advanced tactics, this is not natural." Professor Birch said as I nursed the mother of all headaches. "Especially for a pokémon as peaceful as Masquerain."

"So what, we just declare that area off limits?" Brendan asked as he leaned on the wall.

"For now," The professor said with a pained look on his face. "However we still have to give this Ralts back to her family."

I let out a sigh, I was going to miss the little Ralts.

The sound of a door slamming open caused everyone in the room to jump a bit. We all turned and saw Brendan's Grumpig looking furious.

"What's wrong Warmth?" Brendan said as he raised his arms out in an attempt to calm his pokémon. His Grumpig glared at him before her pearls started to glow.

"Oh," He said sounding intrigued.

"Oh," Now he sounded worried.

"Oh," Now he sounded like he just understood something that he really didn't want to learn. He turned to the rest of us who were waiting for an explanation.

"We're not giving the Ralts back to its mother."

"What possible reason could we have for separating a baby pokémon from its mother? Especially one from a family oriented line like Ralts?"

"You mean besides the fact that this Gardevoir was apparently trying to get her daughter killed on purpose? Probably the fact that it's not actually a baby pokémon, it's just tiny from being underfed."

He looked right at me. "Also, she wants you to train her."

"She, she wants me?" I pointed at myself.

"Looks like you impressed her."

Grumpig motioned for me to follow her, and not wanting to annoy her, I followed. She led me to the room where we had set the Ralts to rest.

Said Ralts jumped when we entered the room. When she saw that it was us, she gave that goofy looking grin from before and shuffled to the edge of the sofa she was on. I rushed up and caught her before she could fall off the edge.

"Hey there," I told her "So you want to be my pokémon then?"

She looked confused for a moment before Grumpig cut in and said something. The Ralts's eyes widened in what was probably understanding before beaming at me and aggressively nodding her head.

"Okay then, my names Nicholas, but apparently people keep calling me Nikki no matter what I do."

Grumpig translated again and the Ralts smiled. She closed her eyes and I suddenly got a vision of a small brook running next to a cliff bottom.

"Is that your name?" I asked, remembering some trivia about psychic type names that I read somewhere. The ralts nodded again.

"Well, then it's nice to meet you Brook," I said as I held out my hand.

The Ralts laughed and hugged it.

And like that, I had my first pokémon.


	2. Episode 2

**Well I have to, say I was not expecting this story to make the spash that it did. Oh well, doesn't really matter that much to me. Here we go with episode 2, the first one to have a title so long that I have to label it as just Episode 2 on the chapter list.**

 **Episode 2: A rocketing start to an adventure/journey**

* * *

The ten days after becoming partners with Nikki had been slow. At first most of my time was spent recovering from both my trip and my mother. But after I got back to my feet, I found myself being taught by Warmth. Most of it was basic information about humans that any human raised pokémon would know. She had also taught me the right way to use my physic powers properly because apparently, my Mother had taught me wrong on purpose.

Still wasn't sure how to feel about that.

On one hand, it made perfect sense, it explained why mother and my brothers were all so much more powerful than me. The problem wasn't with me, it was with the way Mother taught me.

But on the other hand, the only reason for Mother to teach me the way she did was if she was trying to either cripple or kill me. As it turned out, allowing the power to food into me and fill me up was what I was supposed to do. Trying to control the flow and let it in as tiny streams was extremely dangerous. Trying to direct the flow within me had only made the problem worse.

According to Warmth, if I had kept doing things the way Mother taught me, one of two things could have happened.

Either the strain would have eventually gotten too bad and cause unhealable damage to my horns leaving me with no psychic powers, or it would have killed me.

Back when Mother had taught me how to use my psychic powers, she always had this little smile as I recited the seven steps. I thought that maybe she was finally finding a reason to be proud of me. Instead, it looks like she was smiling because her plan to hurt me was going well.

Well, none of that mattered anymore. I was free from here and had bigger things to deal with. For example, the Grumpig standing across the orange colored field grass.

"You two ready?" Brendan asked standing behind Warmth, the glow of the setting sun on his face.

"Yeah, we are," Nikki said as I nodded.

"This is a practice battle between Brendan and his Grumpig versus Nikki and his Ralts," Nikki's sister Aliana said with one hand in the air. "Begin!"

"We'll let you guys have the first shot." Brendan crossed his arms.

"Show me what you've learned sweetie." Warmth said giving 'a bring it on' gesture.

"Brook, use confusion."

I closed my eyes, if only for a moment.

My heartbeat and breathing slowed. At the very least, Mother taught me this part right. I really did need a calm mind and steady breathing to access the psychic power flowing around me. Without the calm, the power would overwhelm me like it almost did that day I met Nikki.

I decided not to think about it and instead open myself up. The human place, this… city. It felt different from the forest. In the forest, the power swarmed all around me with seemingly no structure. However, after a while, patterns began to appear. Order hidden among chaos. Here the power flowed through neat straight lines, forming endless rows of neat boxes.

But within those neat tidy boxes were an overwhelming torrent of power, swirling and crashing, trying and failing to escape the confines of the boxes. This was absolute chaos hidden within order.

I opened the floodgates all the way and let the power deluge within me. The power filled me to the brim. From my earlier practice, I knew that I was now glowing green with power.

I opened my eyes, the moment I needed to activate my power now past. I thrust my arm out as the power burst out in a blast of psychic power that tinted the air green as it flew through the sky.

Warmth smiled as the blast passed over here, doing no visible damage.

"Nice try Sweetie. Want to try that again."

My eyes narrowed.

"Let's try that again Brook," Nikki shouted and I was more than happy to comply.

I shot my arms out and let out another two blasts, one from each arm. I hesitated on the second one, taking a moment to aim it slightly higher. The first one hit Warmth who took it like a stiff breeze. She barely moved as the blast hit her stomach. She smiled just as the second blast hit her straight in the face.

She stumbled back for a moment before regaining her balance. Her eyes narrowed.

"Looks like we're getting somewhere," Nikki said as I gave a small cheer.

"Alright let's kick thing up a notch then," Brendan said with a proud smile. "Warmth, give them a double team."

I watched as Warmth multiplied before my eyes. Five Warmths took a step forward and advanced on me. I looked back at Nikki, hoping that he had a plan.

He was looking at the ground in front of the Warmths intently.

"Brook," Here it comes, please have a good plan. "Blast the ground under the center Warmth with confusion."

What? How was that useful? I shot him a questioning look.

He just smiled.

"Trust me." He said, the words ringing in my head. Those were the words, back in the forest. When we had been chased by that Masquerain.

 _He held me in his arms as the purple surrounded us. He looked down and said the words that I know recognized._

 _"_ _Don't worry about it, we'll make it out of this just fine. Trust me."_

And just like that, I was aiming a confusion at the ground beneath the center Warmth.

The blast sailed through the air and impacted hard, not doing any damage to our practice enemy. In fact, all it did was kick dust up everywhere. I saw Warmth narrow her eyes and just barely heard her say "clever" before she was engulfed in the dust.

I let out a small cough and waved the dust away as it drifted towards me. It wasn't enough and I had to then close my eyes and look away as I took a step back.

I opened my eyes and saw the five Warmths still all advancing.

"I see." I heard Nikki mutter behind me. I looked at the line of Warmths trying to figure out what he saw. As far as I could see, all I had done was make everything dusty.

"Ha-ha, nice one Nikki." Brendan's laugh confused me even further. What had I done exactly, and why was it a nice?

Instead of giving a clarification Nikki just gave me another command.

"Brook hit the fourth Warmth with a confusion. Give it everything you had."

I decided to trust him on this. I took aim and reached in deep. I let out a roar, or at least the closest I could to a roar, and punched the air, a blast of psychic energy exploding outwards.

I leaned over, panting hard. I made a moment to work on my stamina and looked up to watch the impact.

With the odds against me, I had expected the blast to cruise right through the Warmth I had targeted. To my surprise, the five Warmths crossed their arms in unison. The blast hit Warmth, pushing her back and causing the four other Warmths to disappear.

"How?" I almost screamed.

"Using the dust kicked up by confusion to figure out which was the real Warmth, impressive." Brendan beamed with pride.

"Not that hard when the dust is moving through all but one of them."

I suddenly felt really dumb. Especially since by the sound of it, I was the only one that hadn't figured it out.

"Alright so looks like you guys have a decent offense going. Let's see how well you do on defense." Brendan gave the two of us a smile that was somehow both the friendliest and most terrifying smile I had ever seen. "Warmth start them off with a Psybeam."

Warmth's forehead pearls glowed and a small ball of blue and purple energy appeared between them. The ball grew to a size that matched her forehead pearls before a beam shot out straight at me.

"Brook, dodge!"

He didn't have to tell me twice. I ducked, tucking my head into me just in time for the beam to fly over my head.

"Warmth keep it up." I looked up and saw the Warmth reading another beam, this one aimed just a bit lower.

"Brook, hop to the left."

I jumped, once again narrowly dodging the beam.

"Quick jump again!"

I looked up and saw Warmth firing another beam. I leaped to the right to get out of the way.

I landed on the ground and quickly got up, realizing that she was speeding up. The time between shots was decreasing. I had to keep up.

"Jump."

I followed Nikki's cue and jumped straight up as the next beam exploded right below my feet. I felt myself grin. Who could blame me, I was doing amazingly. I was already so much better than I had been ten days ago.

Brook," Nikki's cry snapped me out of it just in time to notice the beam coming straight at me. I was still in midair, I couldn't do anything to dodge. I got ready to tuck in and take the hit. "Quick shoot a confusion to your right, strong as you can."

I lashed my arms out and unleashed another strong blast of psychic power. The shockwave from the attack actually pushed me back enough to get me out of the way of the Psybeam.

"Well, that's a new one." I heard Brendan comment as I picked myself off the floor. Using my power like that was a neat trick but I would have to work on the landing.

"Alright, so one last thing," Brendan said as he crossed his arms.

"Brook you ready?"

I nodded at Nikki.

"Warmth, use zen headbutt." The small orb that had been shooting psybeams at me expanded into a half sphere helmet around Warmth's head. She moved back and then sprung forward.

"Brook, burst, now!"

I took in a quick breath hand dug deep within me. I found it quickly, the well within the well.

Burst wasn't a real move, not really. Although it might be the start of one. Over the course of learning how to use my power, we had discovered a wellspring of power within me. A more direct, more brutal power. If normal psychic energy was like free-flowing water, then this power was like syrup.

Every time I had tried to use it, I had failed to do so. When I tried to pool the power inside of me, I lost control. The power exploded out from me, knocking both Nikki and Warmth back during practice.

Maybe one day I would figure out how to use this power correctly. For now, though, the ability to create a blast of psychic energy that blew back everything around me had its uses.

Warmth got a little too close as I felt myself reach the limit of how much of the other power I could handle. Just before Warmth could land her hit I let out a cry and unleashed it.

A wave of green exploded out of me in every direction. The wave dissipated after only a second. Burst was useless out of insanely close range. Anyone more than half a meter away would be unaffected.

Warmth was much closer than that.

My mentor was sent flying away from me at a speed that almost worried me for a second. I worried even more when I saw that Brendan was right in her flight path.

"Brendan look," Nikki's warning was of no use. Warmth crashed into her trainer and both went to the ground. "Out." Nikki squeaked out as Aliana left her spot to go check on her cousin. Nikki on the other hand alternated between looking at me and our collapsed opponents.

I gave him a thumbs up to show that I was okay. He was probably worried since the last time we had tried burst, I had passed out afterword. I started making my way to Warmth and Brendan to see if they were alright and why were my legs suddenly numb.

I fell flat on my face and I heard the pounding of feet approach me. I pouted as Nikki scooped me up in his arms.

"You all right?"

I gave him another thumbs up. My body might be a bit numb but I hadn't passed out that time. I called that an improvement.

He opened his mouth to say something else when he was interrupted by the sound of clapping. We both glanced over and saw both Brendan and Warmth giving us a round of applause.

"Congratulations." They both said.

Nikki and I locked eyes and gave each other manic grins.

We had passed their test which meant one thing.

Tomorrow, our adventure would truly begin.

* * *

"So Nicholas, you have a route planned out yet?" My dad asked me over dinner. The four of us had sat down to enjoy one last meal as a family for a while before I set off on my journey. Brendan had joined us too, wanting to give me a bit more advice and see me off. He had important business with his Dad and the Professor early in the morning and would be gone by the time I got up.

Brook, Kiki, and Warmth ate at a lower table of to the side, talking about, whatever it was that pokémon talked about.

"Well, I was thinking of heading to Dewford first. Rustboro after that maybe."

"So the opposite of what I did then?" Brendan said as he took as he served himself. "Any particular reason for the route?"

'Because it's the opposite of what you did.' I fought to keep myself from saying that. "I have a type advantage against Brawly. From what I've heard about him, he doesn't sound like the kind of person to counteract a type advantage in someone's first gym battle."

"Well you're not wrong," He mumbled loudly and got a distant look in his eyes.

"Yeah…" I continued after a few seconds. "Plus I want to try to fight Roxanne once I have a bit more experience under my belt, but I don't want to hold off too long. Don't want to end up like one of those people who end up fighting her last."

While the Hoenn League did let you take on the gym leaders in any order, certain rules of thumb did tend to crop up. Don't fight Either Roxanne or Uncle Norman last because they're terrifying. Flannery tends to go a little easier on new trainers. Don't fight Winona third because her Skarmory would tear you apart. Those kinds of things.

"Just… be prepared," Brendan warned. "Brawly is a, well he's an intense person."

"Changing the subject," My mom interrupted. "Nicholas, you're all packed right?"

"Got everything ready this morning before heading off to fight Brendan," I admitted.

"Wow, someone was feeling confident." Ali snickered. Kiki floated behind her and copied her trainer. I felt a little bad for Brendan. The rest of us had long gotten used to my sister and her pokémon doing their creepy little laugh in stereo.

The rest of dinner passed without much of note. I got a few more questions about my journey and a few pieces of advice that I had a feeling were going to come in handy.

Finally, Brook and I went up the stairs and retreated to my room for the night. I climbed into bed and Brook did likewise in the small bed we had placed for her in the corner of the room.

Twenty minutes later and I was still awake. I couldn't sleep. I was too hyped to start my adventure that the only thing I had done since going to bed was toss and turn.

I let out a sigh and tried to close my eyes again when I saw a green glow out of the corner of my eye.

I was facing the wall next to my bed so the most obvious object for Brook to messing with would be the door.

The sound of the handle turning confirmed it for me. I waited for Brook to leave the room and got out of bed as quietly as possible, grabbing the small box on top of my desk on the way.

Brook didn't notice my presence as I followed her through the house.

Finally, she reached her destination, the attic. She deactivated her powers and enveloped the latch with a green glow. The panel slowly opened, lowering the ladder.

Brook walked up to the ladder and I was honestly expecting her to give up here. Instead, she took a deep breath and got to climbing.

A dark thought appeared in my head and I got ready to jump out and catch a falling Brook if need be. Fortunately, I didn't have to do anything like that. Brook managed to climb her way up to the attic without incident. I smiled as I got out of my hiding spot and followed after her.

The attic was sparse, a side effect of having a family that doesn't really collect anything. The lack of clutter meant that I could easily keep track of Brook in spite of her small size. She wandered around a bit, her short stature causing the few items around her to tower over her.

After about a minute, she reached what I guessed was her destination. She opened the door to the balcony and went through.

She reached the edge of the balcony and just sat down. I noted that she was starring off in the direction of where we had met. I stepped out and picked her up.

"Can't sleep?" I asked Brook who just let out a calm sigh before shaking her head. "Yeah me neither." I set Brook down on a small table that we kept out here.

I pulled out one of the chairs for myself and set the box down on the other. I took a seat and we both looked out over the city.

"Never left home before, you got any tips for me." I finally said.

Brook pouted and a mental image of generic looking food in backpack appeared in my head.

"Brook travel tip number one, bring food?"

Brook nodded sagely before letting out a laugh. I couldn't help but join in. We let the laughter subside and went back to looking over Petalburg.

"You left home because you wanted to get stronger right?"

Brook nodded more seriously this time. She looked at me the way she usually did when she about to send me a mental image. I got ready to see what she wanted me to see, only to see nothing.

"Something wrong?" Brook grumbled nervously. A picture of me laughing with a large red X over it appeared in my head. "I promise not to laugh," I said, hoping that I was getting what she meant.

She let out a breath and a mental image appeared in my head again. This time though, something was different. A lone pokémon, a Gardevoir, stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking some mountains in the dead of night. The scene wasn't still, the leaves and the Gardevoir's skirt were fluttering in the wind. I watched as the Gardevoir took a step out from the cliff and began to fall.

I rushed over to the cliff edge in concern. I quickly saw that it wasn't needed, the Pokémon was slowing her descent down. She reached a complete stop before dashing through the air and landing on the mountain. Her impact shattered the rock face and sent stones everywhere. Other pokémon appeared surrounding her. A mixture of poison, ghost and steel pokémon that blocked out all routes of escape for the Gardevoir.

She moved, and I saw that trying to cut off her escape had been the wrong move. Blasts of psychic energy erupted from her, tearing their way through the crowd. She demolished them, reducing their number until only a few remained.

She jumped in the air and the clouds parted revealing a full moon. The Gardevoir glowed with a pale energy the same shade as moonlight. After a few seconds she let out a cry and a torrent of power erupted from her. I covered my eyes as I felt the wind from the blast sweep over me. When I could see again, I saw that the blast had only taken out her foes, it had also gotten rid of most of the mountain.

As the Gardevoir landed on what was left of the mountain, I knew who I was looking at.

It was Brook in her idealized state, the dream she wanted to reach one day. Off in the distance, I watched the strongest pokémon in the world bask in her triumph.

I was pulled out of the image to the sight of Brook fidgeting nervously.

"That's your dream? The world's strongest?"

She nodded.

I fought the urge to laugh, not because the dream was too much. No, I had to stop from laughing because.

"You know it's usually the pokémon that help the trainer reach their dream, not the other way around." She rubbed the back of her head and chuckled nervously. "Well, to be honest, I don't really have a dream. I'm just going on this journey because, well, it's what people do. See the world a bit, catch some pokémon, and win at least two badges, everyone does that. But be the trainer of the world's strongest pokémon," I paused as Brook looked up at me with her eyes wide.

"How can I say no?"

Brook let out a cheer and hugged me the best she could.

"Hey let go for a second, I have something to give you."

Brook took a while but finally relented, allowing me to pick up the box.

"I got this for you a few days ago to celebrate us starting our journey," I said as I unwrapped the present. "I figured that this was as good a time as ever to give it to you."

Slowly, I presented Brook with her gift, a dark green bandana the same color as her psychic energy. She looked mystified.

"Like it?" She broke out of her stupor and nodded wildly.

I folded the cloth into a triangle and tied the two ends around her neck. She laughed as she touched the soft material.

"Glad you like it," I said as I sat back down and looked out over the city again. Brook waddled closer to me and joined me.

Tomorrow… Tomorrow our journey really started.

* * *

"Good morning Brook. Let me help you up." I smiled as Nikki's Mom picked me up and set me down on my little part of the table. I sat down crossed legged as Nikki's Mother grabbed some plate from the counter.

"Nicholas, get down here, breakfast is ready." I chirped as she put the plates down on the table.

"In a second," I heard my trainer say from upstairs. I laughed to myself as I heard him run on the floor above me. "How do I look?" He said as he emerged and made his way down the stairs.

"Oh, you look so handsome!" Nikki's Mother said as I gave a so-so gesture just to mess with him. He was wearing a dark blue shirt with red highlights and a pair of black shorts that went well with his tanned skin and shoulder length black hair. On his back was a blue and black backpack filled to the brim with everything we would need on our trip.

"Thanks mom," he said as he set the backpack aside and sat down next to me. I waved and smiled cheekily.

"Here you two go. I made your favorite pecha berry pancakes." My mouth watered as the pancakes were placed on our plates. Although I had only been exposed to human society for less than two weeks, I could confidently say that baked goods were the best thing humanity had ever done.

I glanced over and cringed a little as Nikki poured combee honey on the already sweet food. I tore a piece of my own food with my psychic powers and levitated it to my mouth. The sugar and added pecha berries were also sweet enough for me.

"You do know the only reason I'm not stopping you from pouring that much is because you're leaving home right?" Nikki's mother gave her son a narrowed look as she ate her own breakfast.

"Of course I do," Nikki said matter-of-factly.

Nikki's Mother tried to keep a straight face but to no avail. A moment after he said that she was breaking and a moment after that she was straight up laughing. Her son joined in on the laughter soon after. I just ate.

What could I say, they were good pancakes.

We finished up eating and Nikki shared one last goodbye with his mother.

"I'm going to miss you." She said as she pulled her son into a hug. I fought the slight hint of jealousy poking its head out over my heart. Mostly by finding a sudden interest in the wall. "It's just too bad that your father and sister wasn't able to see you off too."

"Its fine, dad had to get to work and Ali has school. I already said what I had to say to them yesterday." I suddenly felt myself get picked up.

"And I'm going to miss you two Brook." I squirmed as Nikki's mother rubbed her cheek with hers. I couldn't help but laugh. Nikki let out a sigh but didn't bother trying to save me.

The traitor.

Instead, he reached for the object that was attached to a metal rod clipped to his breast pocket. It was an object that I had spent the last few days getting to know.

"Brook, you want to travel on my shoulder through town or do you want to wait until we reach the woods?"

Well, on one hand, it would be a bit of let down to start my adventure by traveling in a pokéball. But on the other hand, I'd avoid having to deal with urban travels. I still wasn't used to the sheer number of humans that lived in Petalburg.

The thought of dealing with the crowds made my choice for me. I pointed at the pokéball.

"Alright then, Brook return." He clicked the ball and I felt myself get sucked in.

Pokéballs were weird. It was like a tiny little world all my own. In my case, the pokéball looked like a forest on a calm summer day. The only thing out of place was the obviously artificial round metal platform in the dead center.

Of course, it only looked like this because I wanted it to. I had complete control over what this place looked like. In fact, a part of me wanted to replace the forest with a target range to work on my aim. But for now, I figured I'd just relax for now.

With that decided I shrunk the space of the ball and got rid of the forest. With everything cleared and out of the way, I was able to look outside and into the world.

I watched as Nikki made his way through town, waving at a few people he knew who wished him good luck. It was actually pretty nice experience all things considered. Being attached to Nikki's front chest meant that I didn't sway too much, just a gentle rocking motion.

I ended up fighting to stay awake all the way to the edge of town.

The city of Petalburg came to a weird and sudden stop at its edge. Or at least the South-West part of the town did. There were the buildings, the road, and then forest as far as the eye can see. I thought back to what the psychic energy in both the city and forest felt like.

It made me wonder what it would look like if I opened myself up here.

"Brook," Nikki grabbed my pokéball. "Go!" He clicked the ball and gently tossed it into the air. I emerged and landed on the ground.

I stretched and let out a yawn.

"You ready?" I gave him a thumbs up. "Alright then, let's go." He started to squat down to pick me up when I had an idea.

I activated my power and noted that this area did indeed have a weird half-and-half feeling to it. Interesting, but not too distracting. Instead, I pointed my arms down and let out two blasts of psychic energy.

I rocketed off the ground and into Nikki's arms.

"Whoa!" He yelled as he caught me. He put me on his shoulder and glared at me a little. "I feel as though I'm going to regret thinking up that move."

I laughed from my shoulder perch as we set off.

* * *

When I read about the travels of famous trainers, they never talked about how boring it could be to travel through the woods on foot. I'd been on the road for maybe four hours at this point, and I was bored out of my life. And this was just the start, my destination a day and a half away.

"I spy something, green."

Said destination was Petalburg docks. The trip was pretty short when you went by car. By foot through the woods was considerably longer. Still, it was the closest place where I could get a boat to Dewford Island.

An image of a tree flashed in my head.

"Correct."

A simple image of the color green entered my head.

"Is it a tree?"

Brook nodded.

"Okay, so I spy something, gre…" I was cut off by a low growl. I quickly scanned my surroundings only to see that it was coming from Brook. "Yeah, I'm getting tired of this too. So what do you want to do?"

Brook shrugged and draped over my shoulder, nestling in and making herself comfortable.

"Well, at least you're enjoying yourself. Enjoy this while it lasts, once you evolve you'll be way too big for this." She gave me a thumbs up and passed out on my shoulder.

"Are, are you asleep?"

No answer, which in this case, was all the answer I needed.

I kept walking for a little while when I came across a strange sight. I gently rubbed Brook's head.

"Brook, you might want to see this."

Brook woke up from her nap and stared with me.

Lying in the middle of the path was a sleeping girl maybe a year or two older than me. Or at least, I hoped she was sleeping. She was splayed out face down on the ground. I couldn't even see if she was breathing or not.

She was blond, with a white shirt, gray pants, and black gloves.

"Should we help her?"

Brook, being the helpful little pokémon she was, shrugged her shoulders in indifference. I walked over to the collapsed girl.

"Hey, you alive down there?" I asked the girl. I raised an eyebrow as her head moved to the side.

"Please, food." She said with a pitiful moan.

"I guess that it is a good time for lunch anyway." I figured as I sat my bag down on the ground.

Brook and I set up a small camp in a clearing by the side the road as the collapsed girl watched us. It was a simple affair, a lone picnic blanket held down by my backpack and a random rock I found nearby. By the side of the blanket was a small electric stove heating some water.

A few minutes later the collapsed girl was sitting opposite Brook and I, eating an instant meal. She was wearing a white shirt with a jacket and pants, both a dull Gray. She had blond hair that was cut in what I think was called a pixie cut.

Next to her were two Kanto pokémon, Doduo and Oddish, that I had never seen before. The large bird was eating some feed that the girl had in her own pack. The plant was just standing in the sun, soaking up the rays.

I wondered for a moment if there were any plant type specialist trainers who picked their path due to how cheap it was to feed pokémon that literally ate sunlight.

Brook and I were eating our own food of course.

"So what's your name?" I asked as she ate the last of her food.

She said something that was hard to make out with all the food in her mouth. She held up her finger as though to tell me to wait a moment. She finished chewing and washed it down with her tea.

"Name's Laura, from Celadon city."

"I'm Nic…"

Brook dove into my lap. She chirped as a word rang in my head.

" _Nikki."_

"Brook was that you?" I asked slack-jawed. She turned around and nodded.

"What else can you say?" She pouted for a moment before I heard my nickname again. "Is Nikki all you can say?"

She looked down bashfully before giving me a hesitant thumbs up.

"So Nikki, where you from?"

I suddenly realized just what Brook did.

"No I mean, my name… Oh forget it," I gave up, Brendan had won and this was my life now. I took a deep breath and cast myself off the metaphorical highest mountain in Sinnoh.

"I'm Nikki, from Petalburg city."

"Oh, are we close to there?"

"Yeah, I just started my journey a few hours ago."

"A few hours? Really?" she said sounding a bit bummed out.

"Yeah really," I rubbed the back of my head. "So what about you, how'd you end up collapsed on the road with no food? Especially since you somehow had enough for your pokémon in your pack?"

She glanced down at the feed that her Doduo was eating.

"Bird food is easier to transport then human food." She explained. "As for why I was passed out… I left Fallarbor for Rustboro and I got lost on the way."

"You got lost?" I said before what she said set in. "Wait what? Fallarbor to Rustboro? We're way past Rustboro. How did you miss one of the largest cities in the region?"

"I don't know! The first hint of human civilization I've seen since leaving Fallarbor was a sign that said 'Petalburg this way'. I tried following it but my food supplies ran out days ago."

I just gaped.

"So… where are you headed?"

"I'm heading for Petalburg port to take a ship to Dewford Island," I muttered, still shocked at how Laura had managed to somehow miss two cities on her trip.

"Oh, is there food there?"

"Yes," I said with a nod.

"I see," She crossed her arms, closed her eyes and nodded. "Well that settles it," She unfolded her arms and placed her hands on her knees. "I'm joining you."

"Wait what?"

"Yeah, come on, traveling is always more interesting in a group."

"I guess, but weren't you trying to head to Rustboro?"

"Yeah, but the plan from there was to head to Dewford. We're both going the same way."

"I guess we can join up for a while then." I got up from the blanket. "And since we're going to be traveling together, mind helping me put all this stuff away?"

"Sure thing, Doduo, Oddish, you two help too." She said to her pokémon who both got to work. Or at least, the little work they could do since neither of them had arms. Between the five of us, we had everything cleared up quickly. I placed the trash in a separate bag and put it away for disposal once we reached the port.

"Okay let's head out," I said as I started walking, Brook back on my shoulder. However, after a second or two, I noticed that Laura wasn't following me. "Changed your mind?"

I turned around and saw her smile at me.

"I almost forgot the most basic part." She said still smiling.

"What do you mean?"

"What usually happens when two trainers meet?"

I realized what she meant.

"They have a battle," I answered.

"That's right, you feeling up for your first real pokémon battle?"

"Sure but, how did you know this is my first battle?" I was curious about how she could have known? Did I give off the feeling of someone who'd never battled before?

"Because you just told me that you just started your journey today a few minutes ago." She stuck her tongue out at me playfully as I felt a blush come to my face.

"Oh right," I tried to not meet her eyes as Brook sniggered.

"You ready?"

"Yeah, I am," I looked at Brook. "You up for this?"

Brook didn't even bother answering. Instead, she just jumped off my shoulder. She hit the ground in a three-point landing, landing on both of her feet and her fist.

"I guess that answers that. Alright Brook, this is our first proper battle. Let's show her what we got."

"Looks like you got the trainer attitude down already." She smiled and pointed forward. "Doduo, let's show the rookie how it's done."

We took positions on opposite sides of the clearing.

"Let's start this off Doduo, give her a peck attack."

Doduo rushed forward towards Brook. I thought about telling Brook to counter but realized she was nowhere near fast enough to do so.

"Brook dodge."

Brook dodged to the side the left Doduo head snapped forwards with their beak. I had to think of a way to deal with this quickly. Maybe if I…

"Doduo keep up going, switch to fury attack."

Doduo obliged, striking forwards with its right beak this time. Brook managed to dodge this one too, but she was pushed back in the process. Before I could say anything, Doduo reared its right beak back and struck with it's left. Brook had to back step and dodge again, pushing her further back.

Over and over Doduo would attack, alternating its head each time and each time Brook would get pushed further and further back.

Maybe if I had Brook use burst. Doduo was certainly close enough to feel the full brunt of the non-attack.

No. Using Burst once was still too exhausting for Brook to use this early in a fight. If Burst didn't win outright, Brook didn't stand a chance afterword.

Burst was too much of a gamble, but Brook did have another move. A move that I hadn't found a real use for until now.

"Brook use growl."

Growl was one of those basic moves that you never saw anyone use ever. A blast of sound that temporally lowered your opponents attack by a little bit. It was basically worthless. It lasted the shortest amount of time and the attack loss was so minimal, that you were better off just attacking.

But it did have another use.

Brook back stepped another attack before inhaling deeply. Doduo struck its left head forward. Instead of back steeping again, she sidestepped and grabbed Doduo head. She let out a loud chirp enhanced by her psychic power Right into the bird's ear. Even standing behind her, the chip was loud enough and sudden enough to almost make me jump.

Doduo, who took the full force of the sound, froze its attack.

"Now while their open, Brook use confusion."

Brook let go of the head and thrust both of her palms forward. Her horns glowed green and two blasts of green tinted air blasted Doduo away. The flying type tumbled away, recovering near the edge of the clearing. Brook and I managed to give ourselves some much-needed breathing room.

* * *

My first battle was going well. Grabbing Doduo head like that felt a bit too mean but I wanted a win for my first match. And a win was what it looked I was headed for.

But I couldn't let up now, I was still far off from victory.

"Doduo, charge forward."

"Brook use confusion before Doduo can get closer."

Doduo blasted towards me and I aimed a quick confusion at him. I scowled as he dodged my attack. I sent another one, making him go further to the left.

"Brook, aim a strong confusion at Doduo legs." I took aim and sent a strong blast at the bird's legs. The blast was too big for him to sidestep. Instead, he jumped upwards, clearing the blast completely.

"Quick Brook, confusion while they're in the air and can't dodge."

I smirked as I took aim at Doduo. I had the shot lined up and I felt the power course through me. I got ready to unleash my power and end the fight.

"Doduo, use rage."

The sheer anger emanating from the two pairs of eyes stopped me dead in my tracks. Doduo shifted itself in the air so that its outstretched foot was pointed right at me. It let out a cry and did something that I was unaware that it could do.

The wingless bird flew.

A sudden gust of air from behind him launched him right at me.

I crossed my arms and braced for impact, I had no time to do anything else.

"Brook!" I heard Nikki yell as Doduo crashed into me foot first. Even having braced myself, I was still blown backward. I grimaced as I skid on the ground. I watched as Doduo took a second to recover from the impact himself.

Which was great for me because I still had a powerful confusion ready to go.

I shot the blast at Doduo while he was still recovering. The bird was helpless to avoid it and took the full brunt of the attack.

"Oh should not have done that little trigger finger." Laura sang as she waved her finger at me as though to admonish me.

I glanced back at Nikki to see if he had any idea as to what she was on about had.

He looked pale and stressed.

"Brook do you know what Rage does?"

I shook my head.

"It's an attack that gets stronger if the user is hit after it's used." He pointed at something in front of me.

I still didn't get what the big deal was. The first rage hadn't been that bad, what would a tiny little boost do? I turned around and got ready to face Doduo and its slightly higher power.

Had… had Doduo been surrounded by a swirling red rage aura earlier? Because he definitely had it now.

I was beginning to understand why hitting Doduo with that last confusion might have been a mistake.

"Keep the rage going Doduo!" Laura called out as Doduo jumped towards me. He spun forward and extended his leg out. I suddenly found myself frozen in place as I watched Doduo heel descend upon me.

"Brook, dodge forward!" I lowered my head and stuck my arms behind me. I jumped forwards and let out two blasts, hoping that they didn't hit anything behind me. I exploded forwards, dashing underneath my flying opponent. I looked back and watched as Doduo's kick impacted the spot where I had been standing.

I gulped as the spot exploded in a cloud of dust and dirt. I imagined myself in their place and found myself thankful for Nikki keeping my head on straight.

I came to a skidding stop just as the red aura around Doduo began to subside. All I had to do was avoid hitting him with confusion until the aura was gone completely and I was in the clear.

"Brook, quick, hit Doduo with the fastest confusion you can. Don't bother making it strong, prioritize speed."

"Are you insane?" I loudly chirped even though I knew that he couldn't understand what I was saying.

"Trust me." He said calmly as he raised up on of his hands and…

We were going to have words and metal images after this. I was the one who gave thumbs up in this partnerships, not him.

Still, trusting him had done well for me so far, why stop now? I shot out something that I would barely call a blast. It did the job though, whatever it was that the job was. The shot hit Doduo in the back, making both heads suddenly snap backwards. I gulped as the red aura, which had almost vanished, returned in a flare.

"Okay now focus on avoiding his attacks," Nikki explained as Doduo started charging towards me. "Try to get some quick confusions in but don't go for damage, just keep Doduo annoyed."

I pointed my arms downwards and got ready to jump. I narrowed my eyes as I waited for the signal.

"Now jump!" I leaped forward and let loose a psychic blast that launched me right over Doduo. I flipped through the air, to the point that I was upside-down when Doduo passed underneath me. Remembering Nikki's command, I took the chance to hit Doduo with another confusion. The small blast also gave me enough momentum to spin further forward and land on my feet.

A good thing too because the second my feet touched the ground I felt something right behind me.

I snapped my arms behind me and blasted off, this time caring quite a bit if I hit anything behind me.

I landed with a skip near the edge of the clearing and turned to Doduo.

If the red aura had been a swirling mass before, now it was an apocalyptic torrent of blood red that cast my opponent in shadow. Within the dim glow, I could make out two pairs of glowing red eyes watching me, getting ready to strike.

"Alright looks like it's time." I heard Nikki mutter to my relief. These confusion boosts were starting to take the wind out of me. "Okay then Brook," he said much louder this time. "Stand still and wait for Doduo to come to you."

"Oh," Laura said. "Just what do you have planned?"

Doduo charged straight at me its heads and legs flailing through the air as he charged me.

As I watched Doduo claw its way through the air to reach me I noticed two things.

The first was that I was terrified out of my mind. The other was that Doduo really favored his left side. His left steps stomped harder and his left head was much wilder.

I got ready to dodge to the right as Doduo got in range to hit me. It raised its left leg forward and slid towards me.

"Now Brook, duck and roll." I followed the command and heard a loud crashing sound and something breaking.

I spun and got ready to deal with Doduo, only to find out that I didn't have to bother. Doduo had struck the tree that had been behind me. The tree was nearly broken, and Doduo was holding his foot in pain.

"Brook use confusion on the branches above Doduo."

Doduo, Laura and I all glanced upwards. There were indeed a few branches sticking out over the clearing above Doduo.

I raised my hand up and took aim.

One confusion later and the branches came tumbling down on top of Doduo, knocking the bird out.

"Doduo, return," Laura called out as Doduo dissolved into a red light that was sucked up into his pokéball. I looked over at Nikki and cheered. He did the same as he ran over to me. He picked me up as the two of us celebrated.

Our first real battle, the first of countless to come, had ended in complete victory.

* * *

"You did pretty well for your first battle," Laura told me as we walked. Brook had been tired after the fight, and I had been about to return her to her pokéball. However, she had effused to go in and had instead chosen the apparent comfort of being draped over my shoulder.

Either way, she was enjoying a well-deserved break so I was fine with it.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, you had a hiccup here or there but you've already figured out something that way too many veteran trainers never bother learning. Want to guess what it was?"

I racked my brain, thinking the battle over. Nothing really came to mind.

Laura smiled and pointed her finger out as if to lecture me.

"How to use the environment to your advantage."

I stopped for a second.

"Really, that feels like a basic thing."

"You would be surprised by how many trainers never bother using the battlefield to their advantage. Which, to be fair, is mostly because they're focusing on their pokémon's raw abilities."

"I guess that makes sense." My mind suddenly went back to something that Laura said earlier. "So you said you were from Celadon right? That's all the way in Kanto. What brings you all the way to Hoenn?"

She laughed.

"It's kind of a long story. Pretty personal too."

"Oh I'm sorry," I said as I felt my cheeks redden. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"It's fine. If I met someone from Hoenn traveling through Kanto I'd ask them the same thing." She put on a thoughtful look. "The basic version is that my Mom made some choices that her family… didn't approve off. Like her job, or her friends, or me." She said as she cheerfully pointed at herself. "A few years back it got so bad that my Mom just decided to leave Celadon. Her job offered her a position in their Hoenn branch and she had some friends here so here we are."

"Sounds…" I had no clue what to say. A family like that sounded completely foreign to me. The only word that I could think of that wasn't guaranteed to offend her was probably. "Rough."

"Eh, it fine. I like Hoenn better anyway. Nothing beats the beach on a hot day."

"Does Kanto not have beaches?" That made no sense, there had to be at least a few beaches.

"There are two, neither of which were close to Celadon. Plus they were trash anyway. Not like the paradises all over Hoenn."

"Huh, never really thought about it that way. Guess I take Hoenn's beaches for granted."

"You guys have no idea how good you guys have it beach wise.

"Oh look we're coming up on the hill."

There was a small hill on the trail to Petalburg port that overlooked the port that gave an amazing view. It was a perfect, scenic view of the place where I would set sail to my next destination.

"Hey, we saw it first."

"Like it matters, it should go to us." The three of us reached the top of the hill to a bizarre sight.

There were four people, two pairs standing across each other with a pokémon in the middle between them. However what caught my eye wasn't the fact that these kids looked ready to fight. It wasn't the fact that even though they were around Laura and my age, they had scars on their faces.

No, it was the red and blue costumes that the two pairs wore.

"Uh excuse me?" Laura said before I could stop her. "Could you let us pass, you're blocking the road."

All four of them turned to us and glared. They all yelled at once.

"Stay out of this. This is team Neo-Aqua business."

"Stay out of this. This is team Neo-Magma business."


	3. Episode 3

**Episode 3: Primal Forces on the very shaky rise**

* * *

I was too young to really remember the bulk of the Aqua-Magma conflict. Sure as I got older I started learning about all the terrible things the two teams did back in the day, but a toddler doesn't really pay much attention to stuff like that.

However, there was one exception. Five years ago, when Kyogre and Groudon were awakened. My family had been visiting one of mom's relatives in Lilycove at the time. We got first row seats to what to my young eyes looked like the end of the world.

Both teams were dissolved after that to no one's surprise. Their leaders were arrested as were the Luxray's share of their members. Only a small handful were left, escaped to scatter to the wind.

So seeing four kids my age wearing aqua and magma uniforms was something that I was not expecting to see today.

"What the heck are Team Neo-Magma and Team Neo-Aqua?" We all stood in place and stared at Laura in silence. A wind blew past us all and made the leaves in the trees above us rustle. Brook glanced up from her nap to see what the commotion was about.

She decided to just go back to sleep.

"What!" Said the pink haired boy in the red Magma uniform that looked a few sizes too big for him. The pants were rolled up and baggy. The boots were replaced with red sneakers. The hoodie was pulled down and the sleeves of the undershirt were roughly cut to not cover the hands. "How do you not know the greatness of Team Magma?"

"Now Chris," The blue haired girl in the magma uniform told her, friend I guess, and put her hand on his shoulder. She adjusted her glasses with her other hand. Her uniform was also too big for her, having the same kind of alterations to make them fit right that he did. "She probably means that she hasn't heard about Neo-Magma. We did just start the team. Give it time. One day we'll be as famous as the old Team Magma. And as our leader, you'll be just as famous."

"Thanks' Charlie. You're right, we just have to keep working hard and what do you Team Aqua punks think you're doing?"

I looked over to the other pair who had picked up the pokémon and had been apparently been trying to sneak away.

"We're taking this rare shroomish for the glory of team Neo-Aqua!" Yelled the dark-skinned boy in the oversized team Aqua uniform. In fact, I was pretty sure that those poofy 'pants' were supposed to be shorts.

"Yeah, you tell em boss, for the glory of Team Neo-Aqua!" Yelled the black haired girl in the team Aqua uniform who looked maybe a year or two younger than me. Or maybe she was just insanely short, no idea. Her uniform was, just like the rest of them, comically oversized.

It then struck me that, if I had heard them right, the two boys were apparently the leaders of their respective teams.

"Dwain, Carol, listen," The magma girl said in a condescending voice. "A pokémon of that potential and rarity would be wasted on buffoons such as yourselves. It's best if it came under the care of Team Neo-Magma. We could bring out its full power much better than you two ever could."

"You calling us stupid?" The Neo-Aqua boy, Dwain I figured, yelled at the top of his lungs.

"We ain't stupid, you're stupid!" The small Neo-Aqua girl, Carol, shrieked.

"What an amazing comeback," Charlie said in a monotone voice. "Did you come up with it all own your own? Why it's so good, I think that I'll have to write it down and put it up on my fridge."

"So," Laura pulled my sleeve and loudly whispered in my ear as the four Neo kids kept arguing. "Who the heck are team Magma and Aqua?"

All four of them froze in place and turned to us again. I noticed that Brook had also shuffled and was now standing on my shoulder. She must have gotten woken up by all the commotion.

"She's from Kanto," I said as I held my hand out. "Give us a second?"

The four glared but slowly nodded. I grabbed Laura and pulled her into a huddle.

"Well, a few years ago there were two teams called Aqua and Magma that tried to use legendary pokémon to expand the seas and land respectively. They ended up almost causing an ecological disaster and most of them ended up in jail." I said, trying to downplay the near-apocalypse that the two teams had caused.

The fewer people knew that the world had almost ended in Hoenn, the better.

"As for Neo-Aqua and Neo-Magma, I have no idea. Based on the names I guess that they're successors to the old team."

"That's right Ralts boy." The magma kid named Chris said.

"Ralts boy?" I whispered to Laura who shrugged.

"Team Neo-Magma is the proud continuation of the legacy of Team Magma." Chris continued "We'll free our leaders from their unjust imprisonment, find the orbs, and expand the land."

"Not if team Neo-aqua breaks Archie out, and expands the seas first idiots."

"Please, you Neo-Aqua fools couldn't break yourselves out of a wet cardboard box if both ends were already torn open."

I winced as both teams went back to arguing.

"So what you're telling me is that their like Team Rocket but dumber?" Laura whispers, this time quietly enough for the two teams not to hear.

"Alright, that's it. If you're not going to listen to us then we'll just have to do this the hard way!" Dwain took out a pokéball.

"Yeah, the hard way!" Carol followed her leader and took out a pokéball too.

"Bring it on!" Chris got out a pokéball from his pocket.

"So eager to lose, it's almost funny." Charlie glared and took out a pokéball.

All four of them looked ready to throw down.

For a pokémon that was taking the chance to escape and waddle towards us.

"Pretty much," I answered Laura as the Shroomish waddled up to me.

They let out a quiet squeal that caught the attention of Brook.

* * *

"Oh hi down there." I waved to the small plant thing that I think I heard called a Shroomish.

"You have any idea what's going on?" He asked me.

I poked Nikki's head.

"What's up Brook?" I pointed towards the ground. "You want me to put you down?" I nodded and he did as I asked.

"That's better," I said as my feet touched the ground and I was able to talk to Shroomish face to face. "So I'm not exactly an expert in the human language, but I pretty sure they're arguing over you."

"Yeah I can kind of understand humans a little, but I can't figure out why."

"No clue, I think they're saying you're a rare and potentially powerful pokémon."

"I am?"

"I have no idea." I shrugged. "So, what can you do?"

"Well I can hit people with my head, I can drain energy and I can spores that cause things to not be able to move anymore."

"That's cool, why didn't you use them on the humans over there?" I pointed over to the four humans over there and the two of turned to look at them. They were waving around their Pokéballs without calling out their pokémon. They looked like idiots.

"The spores take a while to make and I try to save them for when I need them. None of them were really hurting me so I figured that I didn't really need them. Plus they didn't really feel like a threat."

"I guess that makes sense."

We turned back to face each other.

"Names Brook," I said as I pointed at myself. "What's your name?"

"Don't really have one."

"Really, Your parents didn't give you one?" I mean, my mother was a stain on my life but at least she gave me a name. Although for reason the term 'ralts with no name' sounded cool in my head. No idea why.

"Well, I didn't really have parents. Us shroomish just grow from spores in the ground after all."

"That's weird," I commented. "You're weird."

I made a snap decision.

"I like weird, I like you. Want to come along on my adventure? I'm going around the world on a quest to explore and get stronger."

The shroomish went silent as he mulled it over.

"I got nothing better to do. Sure why not."

"Really? That's great! One more person to bear witness on my quest to become the strongest pokémon to ever live."

"So I have to go into your trainer's pokéball right?"

"Yeah, it's surprisingly nice in there. Like I thought it would be super cramped and uncomfortable but it's like, super big on the inside or something."

"Never knew that."

"So you ready then," I said as I fired up my psychic powers and unzipped one of the side pockets of Nikki's backpack. I telekinetically grabbed one of the pokéballs and raised it out of the pocket.

"Might as well."

"Yay!" I let out a loud cheer as I telekinetically tossed the ball at him. It stood still and made a clicking sound.

"And just like that, another member has been added to the adventuring party," I told myself as I picked up the now small pokéball and nodded sagely.

I suddenly noticed that the loud arguing that Shroomish and I had been ignoring had stopped at some point. I looked around and saw that, for some reason, everyone was looking at me.

"What?"

"Brook, what did you?" Nikki looked at me like I had just done something really dumb.

"What did you do?" All four of the weirdly dressed humans demanded at once.

"Now hold on for a moment," Nikki said as he put both of his hands up. "Let's talk this through."

"No chance."

"You messed with Team Neo-aqua and now you're going to get it."

"Team Neo-Magma's pride demands you pay for what you did."

"We'll mess you up punk."

All four of them threw down their pokéballs and four flashes of white light appeared and lined up in front of me.

From right to left there was a pokémon with red fur and what looked like six tails, a brown doll thing with red lines on it, a red shiny thing with big claws and….

"A poochyena!" I shrieked as I shrunk back. Poochyena were the bane of Raltses. Our psychic powers didn't do anything to them, leaving us defenseless against them.

I gulped. How could I expect to become the strongest pokémon in the world if I couldn't overcome a single dark-type?

I took a deep breath, puffed up my chest and pointed at the Poochyena.

"I'm not afraid of you," I said doing my best to keep my finger from shaking. I thought I was doing a good job at it too.

"Do you even have any attacks that can hurt me?" The dark-type asked.

I said nothing, not trusting myself to be able to bluff him and not wanting to let him know that I couldn't really hurt him.

"Brook what are you doing?" Nikki asked me sounding worried. Wasn't sure why, I could totally do this. Four on one were bad odds.

For my soon to be slaughtered foes that is. Now, what would be the best way to commutate that to Nikki? Wait, I got it.

I turned around and gave him my trademark thumbs up.

"Brook, the thumbs up doesn't work nearly as well if your arm is shaking." I frowned for a second before using my other hand to grab and steady my arm. Nikki sighed and covered his face with his palm for some reason.

"Brook return."

What?

No really what?

Just off the heels of our first victory and we were running away. I let my arms fall to the side as I felt myself get drawn back into the pokéball.

I stood in the center of my own little world, seething. I didn't even blink I stomped the ground and got myself out of there.

I reappeared in a flash of light in the spot where I had been standing. I let out a yell and faced my opponents head-on.

"Bring it on, I'll take all four of you at once if I have to!"

"Brook why?" Nikki cried in unneeded panic.

"Let me even the odds a bit," Laura called out as she sent out her pokéball. Her Oddish from earlier appeared by my side in a flash of white.

"You take the demon and red claw thing on the left and I'll take sixtails and the doll thing on the right."

"Shouldn't that be up to our trainers?" She asked in a naive sounding voice that made me want to play a prank on her later.

"Brook, get ready. This is going to be rough."

"You two Oddish, be careful."

We both took our stand, ready to fight.

However, before anything could happen we heard a series of loud high-pitched noises approach us from behind our opponents.

"It's the Fuzz!" One of the enemy trainers yelled out.

"Scatter!" one of the others called out before they all recalled their pokémon and ran away in different directions.

"Well, that's one way to deal with the situation," Nikki said as he walked up to me and knelt down to talk. "Why?"

"Why what?" I chirped knowing he couldn't understand me. He just sighed. "I guess I should make it clearer. Why did you catch the shroomish?"

I sent him the mental image of me as a Gardevoire standing in a spotlight on a raised platform with the words 'world's strongest pokémon' above me. I gave particular detail to the Shroomish next to Nikki. The two of them were looking up at me in awe in the image.

"You mean you almost got us into a giant fight with criminals because you wanted someone to show off to?" I nodded, still not understanding what his problem was.

We could have taken them. After all, the two of us were going to be the most unstoppable team in the world.

"First off, you misspelled strongest. Second of all, that could have ended really badly for us. Thirdly, I'm recalling you for now while we talk to the police." He said as he held up my pokéball and clicked it. I pouted as I entered the pokéball.

I found myself standing in a familiar forest.

I crossed my arms as a small hammock appeared between two of the trees.

Might as well get some rest for now if I wasn't going to do anything else. I got into the Hammock and tucked my arms behind my head.

"I still could have taken them."

* * *

The police car came to a stop in front of us. We watched as the doors swung open and both men stepped out.

"Hello, there officers." I waved them hello.

"Hello there," The short-haired younger one said. "My name is Officer Conner, that's my partner Hank. We're detectives with the Hoenn police force." He motioned to the much older officer with long hair.

"Names, Laura and this here is Nikki." Laura introduced us before I could react.

"Nice to meet both of you. You two kids wouldn't have happened to have seen any suspicious characters around here."

"About yea high," She motioned to about my height. "Dressed in red and blue dumb looking uniforms, pick fights really easily?"

The older of the two officers, Hank, sighed.

"Yeah, that's them all right. I don't suppose you kids would mind coming down to the station and giving a statement?"

"I guess we could. Feels a bit weird to finish the first part of my pokémon journey in car though. But this is pretty important."

"Oh, I just realized something. Nikki, did you pack enough food to last both of us until we got to Petalburg docks? After all, you did pack planning to make the trip solo."

"No, no I didn't." I got where she was going with this.

I raised an eyebrow as Laura dashed into the police car. She patted the seat next to her. "Come on, the faster we talk the cops the faster we can go eat."

"How are you already hungry? We just ate a little while ago." I asked as I took the seat and the cops got in front. She waited for the car to start up before she answered.

"I'm not, but by the time we to the station, talk to the police about what happened, get out, and find a place for the night, I will be." She said, looking weirdly proud of herself. "It's not about the hunger of now, but the hunger to come."

It was at this point that I started to wonder just what I had gotten myself into. Finding Laura collapsed on the ground had been strange in the first place, but the girl just got weirder as time went on.

Well, how much weirder could she get? She couldn't have more than maybe two weird quirks, right? Plus, maybe the whole preplan your hunger thing wasn't that weird and it only sounded weird to me.

The rest of the trip to the docks passed by without incident. I was a bit bummed out at losing the chance to walk the rest of the way. Still, if these Neo-Aqua and Neo-Magma guys were bad enough to get the police's attention, then maybe it was for the best that we came with them.

Oh well, I could spend a night under the stars some other…

Until Laura convinced me otherwise, I had been planning to spend the night sleeping outdoors. Where anyone could have gotten at us. For example, four kids who claimed to be successors to groups that had stolen pokémon from people in the past.

"Laura you are way smarter then you act."

"Thanks, it's a gift. Do you know how smart I have to be to play this big an idiot? Good thing I'm a genius." She crossed her arms and leaned back with a smug look on her face. Or at least she did until she hit the back of her head with the plastic part of the door. "Ouchies!"

"Yeah, a regular genius," I remarked as she rubbed the back of her head. I glanced out of the car and saw that we were nearing our destination.

Petalburg docks was a tiny place for how big Petalburg proper was. A handful of docks ready to take both travelers and cargo, some buildings to support the shipping and travel businesses, and some more buildings to support those buildings. For example, the Petalburg Docks police station.

"This way please." Conner showed us in and led us into an interrogation room. Hank split off from us before we got there, saying that he needed to get a few things.

"Sorry about the room," Conner apologized, as he set up a recording device on the side of the table. "It's a small station, so we don't really have any place more appropriate than this."

"Okay, I got the files," Hank said as he walked in with folders in hand. He set them down on the table between us as he took a seat next to Conner. He flipped open one of the files and slid over ten photos to us. "The people you saw, these any of them?"

I gulped as I looked over the photos. They were five and five, five kids in overgrown Team-Aqua uniforms, five in overgrown Team-Magma uniforms. All of the photos looked they were zoomed in close-ups of a set of photos taken at one place. Most of the kids were sneering or in the process of turning around and running away.

"Are these all of them?" I asked as I went through each photo one by one.

"All the ones that we managed to get a good look at in the video," Hank explained. "We got a noise complaint from a warehouse manager a few days ago. Imagine our surprise when we found a bunch of brats in old elemental team uniforms."

Conner nudged his partner with his shoulder. "Maybe we shouldn't call them brats since we're dealing with two kids their age?"

"Oh it's fine," Laura said as Hank stuttered. "Call them whatever you want."

I set the six other photos to the side and slid back the four photos that looked familiar.

"These were the four we saw."

"Great these four, it had to be these four." Hank sighed as he rubbed his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Laura said sounding interested.

"Don't worry about it," Hank said dismissively. "So what did they do?"

"We met up with them on the road here," I began explaining. "They were arguing about a wild pokémon that they apparently found. The Neo-Aqua people were saying that they should keep the pokémon, the Neo-Magma people said they should keep the pokémon."

"Neo?" Hank asked.

"It means 'new' Hank. As in New Aqua and New Magma." Conner replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I know what Neo means Conner!" Hank said angrily. "I was going to ask the kid if he was sure what he heard!"

"They said both names more than once, and they were saying it specifically so that I would know them." I clarified before continuing the story. They carefully listened and took notes from time to time, like when I told them their names, and that they had commented that the two boys were apparently the leaders of both teams.

"Well, I guess that confirms it without a shadow of a doubt," Hank commented as he wrote down the last of the names.

"Confirms what, if you don't mind me asking?" Laura asked. Hank opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by Conner before he could get a word out.

"That the core of these Neo Teams is being formed by Magma and Aqua children." My eyes widened at the words. The Aqua and Magma children were the younger family members of known Aqua and Magma members. Early in the conflict between the two teams, each had gathered anyone who could be used as a hostage and placed them in a secure facility. Both facilities had been found after the teams were dissolved and the children had been placed into the foster system.

As for how I knew all of that, I was friends with one of them. Zach was the son of a Magma member. He was a pretty nice guy and had told me about all of this about two years ago when I had asked him. He had left on his pokémon journey at ten, only to come back after making the bare minimum of two badges.

I told him not to fight Winona third. He came back telling horror stories of how her Skarmory had somehow managed to decimate his Numel three times in a row.

"All four of these children bear striking resemblances and share first names with notable children and younger siblings of prominent Aqua and Magma admins." Conner continued as Hank just stared at him.

"Which is something that the Hoenn police force wanted to keep quiet as to not cause alarm, panic and ill will to the rest of the Aqua and Magma children, Conner!" Hank said finally cutting in. He looked at us intently before pointing at both of us. "Neither of you say a word about this, got it."

"We won't!" Laura and I said in synch.

"Good." Hank sat back. "So, now that we have that established, what else happened?"

I continued the story until I reached one specific part that made them both stop.

"Wait your ralts did what?" Hank looked like he had just heard the weirdest thing he had ever heard.

"She… caught the pokémon." I explained even though I wasn't too sure what happened myself.

"Run that by me again."

"While we were trying to calm the Neo-Aqua and Neo-Magma people, she telekinetically lifted a pokéball out of my bag and caught the pokémon. After that, the four of them got pretty angry and tried to fight the two of us."

"Yeah, they sent out their pokémon and were about to order them to attack us." Laura followed up. "If you two hadn't shown up then and there, things might not have gone too well for us. Thanks for that by the way."

"It was our pleasure Miss." Conner nodded.

The two of them asked us a few more question before letting us go. Hank thanked us for our time, told us that he had some people he needed to talk to and left Conner to see us out. Before we left I asked Conner if we should worry about either team coming after us.

"They won't pull something in town, way too risky."

"I see, you two wouldn't be able to point us to the closest pokémon center would you?"

Conner smiled before giving us very exact directions.

"Thanks' Detective." Laura jumped on my shoulder and gave the man a grin. "Come on Nikki, let's go."

We found ourselves in front of a pokécenter only a few minutes later. It helped that Petalburg Docks was small enough that getting hard was hard for even the most directionally challenged.

The building itself was pretty plain, a simple two-story building with a red roof and pokéball logo above the door. It was actually pretty boring as far as pokécenter's went. Of course, there was always the chance that I'd been spoiled by the multistory, mural decorated piece of art that was the Petalburg pokécenter.

As I walked through the door I was struck again by how plain the place was. A simple brown tile floor with a nurse manning a desk in front of a machine.

"Welcome to the Petalburg Port pokémon center." She greeted. "Please allow us to check your pokémon."

The process was simple enough. I gave the nurse the trainer I.D. that I got from The Professor the day I caught Brook in her pokéball. She handed me a tray with six indents on it. I placed Brook's pokéball on the tray before suddenly remembering that I had a second pokémon now.

She put my two pokémon through a scanner and we both waited a few seconds. The results appeared on a small screen on the machine.

"Looks like both of your pokémon are in good health. A night of rest will have both of them in top shape." She told me as she removed the tray from the machine and passed me my pokéballs back.

"You go find us a table to eat at while I get my own pokémon checked," Laura said as the nurse passed her the same tray that she had given me. I was about to argue that I wasn't even that hungry when I noticed a hunger in my stomach.

I marched off to the pokécenter's cafeteria, trying not to think about Laura's earlier point about predicting her own hunger.

The cafeteria was pretty empty, leaving me the pick of whichever table I wanted. I picked a small corner table, set my backpack to the side, and took a seat.

I leaned back and thought about what happened earlier. Over the years, I imagined myself making my first catch a bunch of times. All of them involved me actually catching pokémon in question, not this bizarre situation that I was in now.

I popped open my bag and dug around a bit before pulling out a small black and blue machine. It was a low-end basic pokédex. It didn't have the scanning ability for wild pokémon but it could analyze pokémon that were already in a pokéball.

I slotted my Shroomish's, it still felt weird to think that way, pokéball into the dex and waited for it to scan. I flashed back to Brendan and I getting it almost a year ago. At the time he had offered to get me a top of the line pokédex, instant scanning, teleporting capabilities to switch pokémon out in the field, even the ability directly teach TMs. I had instead elected to buy a basic model with my own allowance. At the time, I hadn't wanted to accept such a big handout from Brendan, and I wanted to really call it my own.

But now that I was stuck waiting while the dex scanned the pokéball, I found myself regretting that decision.

"Hey what's that?" Laura asked as she sat down across the table from me.

"A pokédex, how's your Doduo?"

"He's fine. That trick you pulled with the tree branch didn't do that much harm." She leaned closer to get a closer look at the pokédex. "Pretty basic model." She commented.

"Yeah, the best the money of child's allowance can buy."

"The fact that you can buy them in stores weirds me out. Growing up I always heard that having a pokédex was a huge deal."

"Imagine if they just gave them out to every trainer." I joked.

"Oh wow, that would be insane." She cackled, my laughter soon joining hers. "So, what's the word on our newest traveling buddy?"

"I'm still waiting for the dex to finish…" A loud beep cut me off. I glanced over and saw the word 'DONE' flash on the dex's screen. "Never mind." I said as I picked it up."

"Shroomish, Male, good condition." I started reading off information on the screen. "Knows tackle, absorb, and stun spore. Stun spore might be pretty useful against Brawly. Ability is poison heal, that might come in handy as a nasty surprise against any poison types."

"Why would someone send out a poison type against a Shroomish? I mean it is part poison itself."

I looked at her like she has just grown a second head.

"No, it's a pure grass type."

"Wait pure grass types other than Tangela are a thing?" She asked in confusion. "I thought all grass types were also part poison."

"Are you sure that's not a Kanto thing?" I vaguely remembered hearing that Kanto didn't have too many grass types that weren't also part poison. I thought that maybe it had been someone making a joke. But here I had a Kanto native going so far as to think that non-grass/poisons didn't exist. Maybe it hadn't been a joke after all.

"Maybe." She placed her head down in shame. I heard what sounded like a sniffle coming from her.

"Are you okay?" Had the comment gone too far? I hadn't wanted to actually hurt her feelings or anything.

She sniffled again and started lifting her head up. She wasn't crying, she wasn't even frowning. Instead, she had her eyes closed and I could clearly see that what I had heard wasn't sniffling, but sniffing. Her head raised higher and higher with each sniff until she was facing upwards.

"Food." She said as she brought her head forward again.

I rolled my eyes and followed after her.

We bought and ate our meals quickly and without too much conversation. I had focused on reading the rest of the information on Shroomish and Laura had focused on eating. I also bought some premium Ralts food for Brook at the same counter where I had paid for my own food.

I still had some of the standard pokémon rations that Brook normally ate. However, the food in the pokécenter was pretty good, and treating myself and not doing the same for Brook, even though I was still a little angry at her, didn't sit well with me.

We finished up and made our way upstairs. Laura told me that she had gotten us a room for the night. Something that suited me just fine because pokécenter rooms were cheap and much, much nicer than any hotel even double the price.

One of the many perks of being an actively traveling trainer. Still, a part of me wondered how many people abused the system by just staying at a pokécenter and never moving on. The answer now was zero after they put in the whole three nights max rule, but I still wondered about what it was before.

"I'm going to shower and change first." Laura dug around her bag and grabbed some clothes. "That okay with you?"

"Its fine, I need to talk to Brook anyway."

"Ouch, sounds like a fun conversation. I'll stay out of your hair." She hooked the door of the room's bathroom with her foot, both of her arms still loaded with clothes. "Good luck." She told me before closing the door.

* * *

I was still mad when Nikki called me out of my pokéball.

"Hey." Nikki started looking unsure. He didn't say anything afterword. This was probably the part where I would have said 'Hey' back if I could speak Human. But I couldn't so I didn't.

Instead, I just waved to get the idea across.

Nikki grabbed a chair from the nearby desk and placed it across from one of the beds. I then allowed him to pick me up and set me down on the bed before he took a seat. I folded my legs and crossed my arms together over my bandana.

"Things could have ended really badly for us today." I gripped my arms tighter. "I get it, you were looking forward to a fight. But you have to understand, those guys were dangerous. They wouldn't have just stood back and fought us one at a time. If those cops hadn't shown up, we would have had to fight all four of them at once."

I growled. Of course I knew that. Of course they were going to gang up on us. I sent Nikki a mental image of me standing before the collapsed form of all four of them.

"Did, did you really think that you could have beaten all four of them?"

I nodded. I didn't just think it, I knew it.

"Brook," He was rubbing his face again. "You don't even have an attack that can hurt dark types yet. Actually, now that I think about it, we probably should have addressed that sooner."

Even as upset as I was I couldn't help but agree with him. We really should have dealt with that earlier.

"But putting that aside, why did you think that you could have taken all four of them?"

I let out a sigh that I hadn't noticed that I had been holding in. He knew why I had a problem with what happened. Just to make it clear I opened a link between us, a little stronger than normal.

I sent him a memory, one of the few that I considered precious to me.

 _We stood on Nikki's balcony the night before we left._

 _"But to be the trainer of the world's strongest pokémon," He paused. "How could I say no?"_

 _He smiled as the memory faded out._

 _A new one took its place. Me getting returned to my pokéball. The feeling of betrayal and anger at being held back. The need to prove myself against the world. All of it flowed through the memory._

And we were back in the room.

"So that's why? Did you feel that, by recalling you, I had given up on your dream?"

I nodded.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

We looked at each other in awkward silence. I wasn't sure what to do.

"You don't remember the old days, I don't really either." He finally said. "But those guys back there, they were bad news. Five years ago, people from those groups almost ended the world."

I blinked. What kind of insanity was Nikki talking about?

"I was a little kid at the time. I remember hugging my mom's leg as the storm raged outside. It was like all of the water in the world was crashing down on the house. But after a few minutes, the rain stopped. We went outside and the sun had started to shine. We thought everything was over."

He smirked bitterly.

"And then people started passing out from the heat. And after that, the fires started. We all ran back inside and turned the AC on. Not that we had too, because a few moments later the torrents came back. It stayed like that for an entire day, just switching between terrible rain and even worse sun."

I leaned back in fear as Nikki's voice got more intense.

"I thought the world was ending and in a way it was. The old Team Aqua and Magma had woken up Groudon and Kyogre. The people who we met today want to free the people who almost ended the world."

He reached over and rubbed my head

"That's why I got scared when I saw people wearing their old uniforms. I couldn't help but think back to something that scared me as a kid."

I tried to stay mad at him but found myself unable to.

I hadn't told him yet. The reason why we had met in the first place. What I went through back home. I had managed to avoid the question whenever Warmth brought it up.

Still, maybe it would do some good to tell him. Why I had to be the best.

I opened myself up again.

"Brook?"

 _I stood in the center of a dark forest, maybe an hour before dawn. I was standing in front of a very familiar tree. To my right was Mother, to my left were both of my Brothers. I frowned for a moment, something about this felt wrong for some reason._

 _Oh right, I couldn't see my bandana when I looked down._

 _I cringed as I felt myself going through the steps that Mother drilled into me day after day at this very spot._

 _I let loose the measly amount of power I had in me on the bush. It barely moved. It was hard to watch know that I knew what I could really do._

 _My Mother scowled before ripping into me._

 _"Pathetic. I spend so much of my time training you and this is the best you have? You are a leech Brook, a parasite weighing down this family." She scoffed._

 _"Come on you two, leave this worthless girl. We have work to do before the sun rises."_

 _She walked away before stopping in place._

 _"Keep going. If I come back and see that you haven't made any process, you won't get dinner."_

 _Those were the worst days. The days I had an impossible looking task to do or else no dinner. I never did manage any of them._

 _I pulled away from the memory. Even if Nikki couldn't understand what it was that my mother had been saying, I was sure that her tone and my emotions would carry what I had to say._

We were back in the room again. Nikki gave me a look that I couldn't really describe. After a few seconds, he got up and walked over to me. I didn't put up a fight as he picked me up into a hug.

"You're okay, no need to cry."

Why would he say that I wasn't crying? I touched my eyes just to prove how dry they were.

Oh.

Guess I was crying.

"Guess you two made up."

We both jumped, well Nikki jumped and I stayed on for the ride, at the sudden intrusion. It was Laura wearing a set of green comfortable looking clothing and with a towel wrapped around her hair.

"Yeah, I guess we did," Nikki said hesitantly.

"Well, the shower's all yours. I'm going to contact my mom and tell her how I'm doing."

"You do that," Nikki told her as he dug around his bag. He took out a change of clothes and a towel before heading into the bathroom.

"She's so weird." He commented as I looked forward to one of humanity's other great achievements besides baked goods.

Glorious hot running water.

One relaxing bath later, the two of us were sitting across from each other again. This time, however, we were both sitting with our legs crossed on the floor, a certain drama causing pokéball between us.

"Just get on with it already," Laura said as she typed on something that she called a pokégear.

We both glared at her.

"She has a point." Nikki pointed out as he grabbed the pokéball. "Come on out, Shroomish."

There was the now increasingly familiar flash of white light and then the Shroomish was standing where the pokéball had been. He looked up at Nikki and tilted his head. Which was probably pretty hard to do since it was also his entire body.

"Hey there. I'm your trainer." Nikki introduced himself. "So… hi?"

The rest of their little meeting went smoothly enough and two came to an agreement. I smiled as Shroomish was recalled into his pokéball, now an official part of the team.

After eating a bit of some frankly amazing food, I decided to turn in for the night.

And by that, I mean that I grabbed one of the pillows from Nikki's bed and placed it down in the corner of the room.

I woke up the next morning to two people mumbling.

"Let…sleep… a few… time."

"Should… her up… late… Breakfast."

And that was my cue to wake up.

"Food," I mumbled as I forced my eyes awake. I opened them to the sight of two blurry giants standing over me.

"Want some help?" One of them, Nikki probably, asked as they stretched their hand down. I grabbed it with both hands and held on as it pulled upwards. After a bit of pulling, I was standing on my feet.

We got ready for the day, enjoyed the free breakfast, and left the building where we had stayed the last night.

"Like I was telling you earlier, our boat leaves later today," Nikki told me as I sat perched on his shoulder. "It's the only one for the day. If we miss, we'll have to take the one the day after tomorrow."

"Why are there so few boats heading to Dewford?"

"It's the offseason. If we were in vacation season, there'd be three boats leaving every day."

"Sounds convenient. Maybe I should have waited for vacation season to start."

"They also triple the ticket price."

"Never mind."

"I thought so."

"So what do you want to do for the next few hours then?"

Nikki stopped in place. He looked pensive.

"I have no idea. There's not much in Petalburg Docks besides the cruise lines to Dewford."

The two of them stood in silence for a while.

"Want to watch the boats?" Laura broke the silence.

"Sure, why not."

A few minutes later the three of us were standing in a small park overlooking the docks themselves. Nikki was standing with his arms crossed and me on his shoulder while Laura sat on top a nearby park table.

"Those are some big boats," Laura commented. Nikki and I both nodded in agreement. "So what now?"

"No idea." Nikki suddenly looked like he had an idea. "I know what we can do."

He grabbed the other pokéball from his clip. "Go shroomish."

Shroomish looked up at us and tilted his head again.

"Since we're waiting for our boat to let us onboard, we might as well spend some time with our brand new teammate."

"Sounds good," Laura said with a smile before tossing out both of her pokémon. Oddish looked over at me smiled. Doduo looked down at me, his beaks making it hard to tell what he was feeling.

"Hey," I told him. "No hard feeling about our fight?"

Both heads judged me for a second before nodding in unison.

"You did well for your first battle," Both heads said at once. "We were impressed by both you and your trainer."

"Really?"

"Really. You have good instincts and you trainer keeps a good head."

I was taken aback by his praise.

"Oh, thanks." I felt my face redden. I glanced over to Shroomish and Oddish who were apparently in a staring contest. "Hey look at that." I pointed at them, hoping to change the subject.

Doduo and I walked over to the two who were locked in place. Laura and Nikki were also watching closely, not looking too sure what was going on either.

After what felt like an eternity, they both nodded and looked away. I walked up to both of them.

"What happened?" The two of them glanced at each, as though coming to an agreement on how to answer my question. The two of them spoke in unison.

"We have come to an understanding."

I looked up to Doduo in confusion.

"Do you have any idea what that's about?"

"Plant-types are strange and obtuse beings. Ask not about their ways, for down that road lay the way to madness."

"Oh, thanks?"

I waddled over to the two humans in the group.

"Brook are you okay?" My trainer asked me.

I started to nod, before switching to shaking, before going back to nodding. In the end, I just did a weird diagonal movement.

"You know ever since I learned that the Ralts line was one of the few lines that can learn to speak telepathically, I've been looking forward to being able to understand you," Nikki explained. "Today might be the first time I've been happy to not be able to understand you."

I couldn't help but agree.

"Alright, Shroomish let's see what you can do," Nikki said as I stood across an open field from the two. It felt a little weird going up against Nikki, even in a practice match, but learning what our new teammate could do was important. Plus, it wasn't like he had to be all that strong anyway. I was still the hero of this team. But I had to admit that the idea of backup that could take care of the small fries appealed to me.

"Bring it." I chirped.

"Shroomish, use tackle."

I smirked as Shroomish ducked its head a little. A single tackle attack? I could take care of this no problem.

Or at least, that what I thought before Shroomish exploded into motion. He charged me with speed that someone with legs as stubby as his had no right to achieve.

I didn't have to react, no time to block or dodge or even brace myself. I took the full brunt of the hit and was sent backwards.

Maybe it was time to take this seriously.

"Brook you alright?"

I brought myself up to my feet and let out an affirmative chirp.

"Alright so let's keep going!"

Nikki and I spent a while going over Shroomish's moves and getting Nikki used to commanding Shroomish. Well, most of his moves at least. Like he had told me the day before, he had a limited amount of spores and wanted to save them. As such we ended up not trying out stun spore for now. If that meant that I didn't have to get paralyzed then I had no problem with that.

"Looks like you three made some good progress," Laura commented as she checked the time. "Think we should start making our way over to the boat?"

Nikki checked the time on his watch.

"Yeah, it's getting close to boarding time. The last thing we need is for the ship to leave without us."

"Alright then let's… is that who I think it is?" Laura pointed towards the entrance of the park. We looked over to where she was pointing. I let out a smirk. There standing at the entrance where four figures wearing red and blue uniforms.

It was time to get the fight I wanted out of these idiots.

* * *

I felt myself freeze again. They were here again. The Team Neo-Aqua and Neo-Magma members from the day before.

"Hey, Ralts Boy!" The team Magma leader, Chris I think his name was, called out to me with an outstretched finger.

"You have something of ours!" The team Aqua leader Dwain said.

"You mean something of ours," Charlie remarked.

"Hey, this truce was your idea!" Carol yelled as she pointed her finger at Charlie who pushed her glasses up with her finger.

"Truce?" I squeaked out.

"Yeah, you heard her." Chris crossed his arms and glared at me. "We've put aside our differences for now so that we can take back that Shroomish."

"So who gets the little guy on the highly unlikely chance that you idiots take him from Nikki?"

"What'd you call us?" Carol tried to leap at us in outrage but was held back by Dwain holding her the back of her collar. It reminded me of a trainer holding back an angry poochyena.

"What else would you call someone who wears super heavy clothes in this heat?" Laura pointed out and I found myself agreeing with her a little. It wasn't the peak of summer but it was still pretty hot out for hoodies and baggy clothes.

"You don't have to worry about that part," Charlie explained. "That's for us to figure out later." She glanced over. "I think you can let her down now."

Dwain carefully let go of Carol collar. She kept glaring at us.

The four of them took out pokéballs and lined up against us.

"Looks like the cops aren't stopping it this time." Laura glared at them. "But this time we both have two pokémon good to go. You ready for your first double battle?"

"Guess I'll have to," I remarked as Brook and Shroomish stood in front of me. Oddish and Doduo took their spot next to them.

Our opponents called out their pokémon.

"Go Vulpix!" Chris yelled.

"Let's teach them a lesson they won't forget Corphish." Dwain grabbed his shoulder and waved his arm around.

"Finish this quick Baltoy." Charlie adjusted her glasses.

"Take them down Poochyena." Carol jumped up and landed with a stomp.

"I'll take care of the Poochyena and Baltoy," Laura whispered.

"Brook against Vulpix and Shroomish against Corphish?"

She smiled. "Now you're getting it."

I faced down the two leaders and narrowed my eyes.

"Vulpix, burn that ralts."

"Corphish, grab the shroomish and bring it here."

Their commands threw me for a loop. I had been expecting them to go the other way round. Well, no time to worry about it, not when I had a fight on my hands.

"Brook, confusion boost out of the way. Shroomish, get ready."

Brook pointed her arms downwards and blasted upwards to avoid the flames that shot out from the Vulpix's mouth. Shroomish stood firm as Corphish got closer.

"Brook use confusion on Vulpix." The psychic blast that Brook let loose served to purposes. It forced Vulpix to either dodge or take the hit, meaning that they couldn't attack. It also kept Brook from being a sitting duck in the air.

I grimaced, Corphish had gotten close enough. "Shroomish now, use absorb."

Shroomish ducked under the Corphish's claw and slammed into the crab. Shroomish began glowing green as Corphish cried out. Corphish shrunk back in pain from the super effective attack.

"Follow up with tackle." Shroomish dashed forward like he had done earlier against Brook. Much like Brook, Corphish was sent flying. I pumped my feet only to feel panic as I heard Brook let out a cry of pain.

I looked over and saw Brook holding a small red spot on her arm and glaring at Vulpix.

"The trick to winning a double battle," Laura managed to say between commands. "Is to not let yourself… Doduo, fury attack now! To not let yourself get too caught up with one pokémon is doing. Oddish, use acid to keep Poochyena on the run. Keep your attention split 50/50." With her advice given, she went back to focusing on her own battle.

"Vulpix, use ember again." I grimaced as another round of sparks flew at Brook.

"Brook hit the ember with confusion." The wave of green energy collided with the flames, negating both. Corphish, meanwhile, had finally gotten back to their feet.

"Alright, no more playing nice!" The Team Neo-Aqua declared. "Corphish, use Bubble beam."

"Hey, we agreed to go easy on the Shroomish to make it easier to convince it to join us!" The Team Neo-magma leader glared at his temporary ally. "Vulpix use tackle." He added in, almost like an afterthought.

"Well, it's not like it's going to go to you guys anyway," Dwain commented, causing Chris to grind his teeth. It looked like the Team Neo-Aqua leader was more concerned with getting a rise out of his teammate than the battle.

Not that it mattered to Corphish who unleashed a torrent of bubbles at Shroomish. He didn't have time to dodge, instead bracing himself for the hit.

Seeing my first pokémon face down a charging opponent while my second pokémon took the full force of an attack was something that probably should have worried me. But it didn't, it really didn't.

Because I saw an opportunity. "Shroomish, hang in there. Brook hit Vulpix with a weak confusion to slow them down." Brook took aim and fired, slowing the charging fox down but not stopping them all the way. Chris barely noticed.

Vulpix was slowed, Corphish was still unleashing a bubble beam, and it looked like the two Team Leaders were getting ready to argue again.

Perfect.

"Now, grab her head and use growl," I commanded Brook who pulled off the same maneuver that we had used on Doduo yesterday. And just like our match with the bird, the growl sent the fox stumbling backwards in a daze. "Now circle around to the left and launch her into the bubble beam with a confusion at full power."

Brook had a vicious look on her face as she followed my commands, even making a bit of a show of pushing her arms into Vulpix before sending the fox flying in an explosion of green psychic energy.

Shroomish found himself the chance to breathe easy as Vulpix was thrown into the bath of the bubbles. Corphish stopped the attack but wasn't fast enough to keep all of the bubbles off their teammate.

"Hey what is your crab doing?" Chris grabbed Dwain by his shirt and yelled into his face.

"Hey, it's not my fault that your mutt got in the way of our attack! Now get off me before I rearrange our face!"

"Get out of my way you incompetent!" I turned to the side and saw the two girls were also at each other's throats. The satisfied look on Laura's face told me that thing had gone according to her plan too. Looked like the enemy's unity was failing on all fronts.

"It's not Poochyena fault that your Baltoy's so bitable!" Carol yelled into Charlie's face.

"That's it!" Chris yelled. "Charlie, this alliance is over! Vulpix, give that Poochyena a burning it won't forget."

"Corphish, take care of that overgrown top toy." The six of watched as Neo-Aqua and Neo-Magma collapsed into infighting. Brook, in particular, looked torn between disappointed from missing out on her fight and enjoying the show. I glance over at Laura and made a certain hand motion, rubbing my fingers together like I was applying salt to my food.

She grinned and did it too, which I hoped meant that she got my plan.

I waited for all four of the pokémon to group up together. The second they did, I put my plan in motion.

"Now shroomish,"

"Oddish get ready,"

"Stun Spore!" We both called out as golden spores erupted from both grass types and showered over all four of them. They all froze in place as the spores did their work.

"What did you do?" All four of the team members asked. They glared at us until they noticed something very important. Specifically the fact that all of their pokémon were now disabled and that all four of own were just fine.

They all looked at each other for a moment and all apparently came to the same conclusion. That the tides had not shifted in their favor.

"Return!" They all recalled their pokémon.

"Scatter!" They all ran in different directions.

We watched as the four ran off into the distance. I couldn't help but snicker as I watched Carol trip over her own feet on her run back.

"Well looks like we managed to handle that one pretty well," Laura smiled as she raised her hand up for a high-five. A high-five that I was glad to return. "By the way,"

"Yeah?"

"Shouldn't we get to the boat?"

I blinked.

"Brook, Shroomish, return," I called back both of my pokémon and clipped them to my pocket. Laura did the same for Oddish and Doduo and then we were both off.

There was no way I was missing this boat and by extension, my first gym badge.


	4. Episode 4

**Episode 4: A battle within, and a battle without**

* * *

"Look there it is." Laura stood on the railing and pointed towards the island. It was close enough to make out the buildings that made up the resort. "We're here, Dewford town."

I folded my fingers over my eyes to reduce the glare and took a closer look.

"Oh, that's not Dewford town," I commented.

"What do you mean? That's Dewford island right?"

"Yep."

"And Dewford town is the only town on Dewford island right?"

"Right again."

"So that town on Dewford Island is Dewford town?"

"Nope."

She got off the railing, leaned towards me and put her hands on her hips. "Explain."

"Okay, so this is going to be a little complicated so get ready." I took a moment to organize my thoughts. "So this is how it works. Dewford Island works like this. What you see over there isn't Dewford town. That's Dewford resort. Legally, it's not actually part of Dewford Town. In fact, it's not a town at all. In spite of it having a pokécenter, a permanent population, and other things that towns usually have, it's technically privately owned land."

"Who owns it?"

"The people who own the resorts. It's the same set up as when people own those huge mansions in the middle of nowhere. Part of no town or city and answering only to the region itself."

"Except instead of a mansion they built a ton stuff that looks like a town but isn't a town?"

"That's right. Dewford resort takes up the entire north-east part of the island. The southern part of it blends into Dewford Town proper which takes up the South-east part of the island. On the North-west part of the island is Dewford Port, which is under the control of Dewford town in spite of not being adjacent to it."

"So how do you get there?"

"Cars have to take a road that rounds around the south part of the island. You can also walk over granite path to get from the resort to the port. That's the one trainer's do."

Laura gave me a raised eyebrow.

"How do you know all this again?"

"My family vacationed in Dewford Resort for the first time at that age where kids ask a million questions. We ended up getting a weirdly knowledgeable tour guide."

"So when I say that I have something to deliver in Dewford Town…"

"You want the real town on the South-east part of the island. Which is also where the Gym is so that's convenient."

We went back to our room and packed our things and got ready to wait for the boat to dock. As I did, I couldn't help but worry about Brook.

Raltses were known for one thing, their empathy sense. Their ability to sense other people and pokémon by their emotions. I glanced down at the pokéball on the desk next to me.

A Ralts never loses their trainer. It only took a few days for a Ralts to memorize a person's unique emotions. After being together for almost two weeks now, Brook should have been able to track me no problem.

Brook and I got separated last night, and I had to be the one find her.

We had spent most of the trip working on some 'special training' for Brawly. The ship had a small arena on the deck and both Brook and Shroomish had gotten some good training in. After we finished, we had gone out to enjoy the ships complementary dinner. Brook had gotten distracted by the ocean and I lost track of her.

I had spent a terrifying twenty minutes rushing around the ship, asking anyone if they had seen a lone Ralts.

Getting Brook that green bandana had come in handy. Her wearing it was what led me to her. She had been apparently been searching the ship for me as well. Mostly by just wandering around and hoping to get lucky.

It left the question, why hadn't Brook used her empathy sense to find me.

I held in a sigh. She had either chosen not to use it, was unwillingly to use it, or didn't know how to. Each one of those had some implications that I didn't want to think about too much.

I resolved to ask Brook about it directly once I had a chance. I just hoped that whatever the issue was, it wasn't too serious.

It took another hour or so for us to get off the boat. We landed on one of the smaller docks and we soon found ourselves on Dewford resorts brand new and increasingly famous Stone Walk.

The Stone Walk was a long road that went down the length of the beach. Meant for foot and bike traffic, it was paved in smooth, polished stone. On one side of the walk was a small waist-high wall meant to keep too much of the sand off the stone with the occasional opening that led directly to the beach. On the other side were the resorts themselves. While the majority of the resorts were made up of hotel rooms, the parts that connected directly to the beach were different. From where I stood I could see restaurants, spas, swimsuit shops, ice cream stores, souvenir shops and a few other kinds of stores.

However, it was all connected by one fact that neither of us could ignore.

"Dewford Resort," Laura commented.

"Truly the top vacation spot in all of Hoenn." I shot back.

"Beaches known the world over."

"A place to take in the sun and surf."

Laura and I glanced at each other.

"Let's get out of here." Laura declared.

"Agreed, we have nowhere near enough money to enjoy a place like this."

And like that, we started walking south down the Stone Walk. The Walk went down all the way to Dewford Town proper which was where both of us had to go anyway. It also helped that the Pokécenter in Dewford Town was right on the Stone Walk.

As such, we figured that taking the Stone Walk would be the best way to go. There was just one problem with our plan.

"Why is it so hot?"

"Whose idea was it to make a Stone Road with nothing to provide shade?"

"It's like six in the afternoon, the sun's behind the buildings. How is it still this hot?"

We were both drenched in sweat and dying from the heat. The worst part was that every few minutes we would pass an ice cream store that would tempt us in. But we couldn't, not in Dewford Resort. Not in a place where our wallets could be so easily emptied.

Laura grabbed my shoulder and we both came to a stop. "Nikki, if I die here," she said slowly. "Take Doduo and Oddish and bring them back to my mom. She lives in a tiny house on the outskirts of Fallarbor Town."

"We're not dying here."

She went down on one knee and punched the ground.

"You guys are idiots."

We both looked over to a kid our age sitting on the wall with an ice pop in his hand. He was dressed in a breezy white short with a blue strip and short jeans.

"The reason you two are baking is cause you're both wearing heavy backpacks." The kid told us.

"How far are we from Dewford Town proper?" I asked, hoping for a good answer.

The kid looked at our feet and then the buildings. He rubbed his chin for a moment and hummed.

"Take a step forward."

I shrugged my shoulders and Laura and I took a single step forward.

"Congratulation, welcome to the real Dewford Town. The part that isn't owned by rich people."

"Wait this is the boundary?" I yelled.

"Yeah," He pointed to the buildings. "That red hotel is the last one before the resort ends."

"So how far are we from the pokécenter?"

The kid smiled and got off the wall.

"Tell you what, I'll take you two there myself Name's Bruce."

"Sure thing Bruce. I'm Nikki and this is Laura." I froze for a second as I realized what I had just done again. I opened my mouth to correct myself when I was cut off by Laura.

"Mind if we buy some ice cream on the way?" Laura asked looking more like a five-year-old instead of almost-teenage she was.

"Sure thing, in fact, I know an amazing ice cream place on the way to the pokécenter."

"Sure lead the…" I was interrupted by a flash of white light.

* * *

Now I wasn't exactly sure what this eye-scream was. But with how they were talking about it, I knew I wanted to try it.

"Hey Brook." Nikki rubbed the top of my head with his finger, making me purr. "Heard us talking about ice cream and wanted some?" I gave him a chirp and smiled.

"Can Brook even eat ice cream?" Laura said, earning her a glare from me.

"It's fine," The new human said. "This place also sells stuff that's safe for pokémon."

"Well, that's good. The last thing I need is Brook getting sick right before my first gym battle."

The thought of having to sit out a battle due to illness sent a shiver down my spine. I would never let myself live it down.

We began walking down the weird stone road that I'd watched Nikki and Laura walk for the last hour or so. Of course, unlike my sun drowned trainer and his friend, I had done so from the cool comfort of my climate controlled pokéball.

I looked over to the sea. Just a few days ago it was a far off impossible location that only existed in my dreams. I'd seen it for the first time just yesterday but I found myself still being fascinated with it. And of course, sailing it had been something beyond even my dreams. And of course, we would need to board a boat to leave the island as well.

I couldn't wait to set sail again.

"We're here." The boy declaring loudly snapped me out of my thoughts. In front of us was a soft blue two-story building with a large sign above the door. It was some sort of green circle inside some sort of brown cone.

Was this the fabled eye-scream that Laura wouldn't stop talking about?

"Yay, ice cream," Laura answered my question for me by walking up to the door and swinging it open.

"Hey, Uncle I got you some customers." The kid said as the three of us followed Laura in. The inside was a cold respite from the heat outside. A few tables clustered the left side of the room. On the opposite side was what looked like a table with a bunch of brightly colored stuff behind a window. Behind the table was another human, this one much older. He was dressed in a loose white shirt.

"Hey, Bruce, new friends?"

"Maybe, traveling trainers looking for the pokécenter. Wanted to stop for eye-scream on the way, so I brought them here."

"Let's see here, cone or cup, do I want any toping, maybe I could do a waffle cup and…" Laura mumbled to herself as she looked intently at the things behind the glass. She glanced up towards the board on the wall and just starred.

Nikki shook his head and I found myself agreeing.

"Bruce told me that you also sell stuff that's okay for pokémon to eat?"

"You got that right," The man nodded. "Most of my flavors are safe for most pokémon to eat. If you're getting something for your Ralts then you should be fine."

"Sounds good," Nikki looked over at me. "What do you think Brook, how about Combee honey flavor?"

"Really?" I chirped at him with a glare.

"Okay then, how about plain vanilla. It shouldn't be too sweet." I nodded as to agree. "Well, you heard her, one medium-sized plain vanilla cup for both of us."

"One plain vanilla, got it. What about you girlie, what will you be having."

"I'm going to die." She mumbled as she kept looking at the board.

"Excuse me." The older man sounded concerned.

Laura took in a breath.

"I'll have full sized double quadruple chocolate executioner with the works and extra nuts."

The store fell silent.

"What?" Both Nikki and the smaller human asked. I would have done it too but I couldn't speak human.

"You're right kid, you are going to die. One full sized cup with eight scopes of chocolate, two scopes of each kind, all our chocolate toppings and extra nuts.

A few minutes later Nikki and I could barely touch our food as we watched Laura tear into her gigantic cup.

Both of the other humans looked from off to the side. The smaller one looked scared while the larger one just looked impressed.

"It's the size of your head, how are you still eating?" Nikki asked as he pocked at our food, which I had to admit, was pretty good. It wasn't as good as those pancakes that Nikki's mother had made the day we had left, but it was pretty good.

"Knowing that," She said in-between bites. "It's free if… I finish it… helps."

Nikki and I finished our food and excused ourselves and left Laura to finish her… quest.

We walked over to the wall next to the Stone Walk. He laid me down on the wall as he sat next to me. The stone felt really nice underneath my feet. I laid down and felt the comfy heat almost lull me to sleep.

"You're going to get sunburned if you do that." He told me as he angled himself so that he was blocking a bit of the sun for me. "Hey Brook there's something I wanted to ask you about."

He took out that machine that I had seen him pull up from time to time. He pressed a button on it and it flashed to life. He fiddled with it a little before finding whatever it is that he was looking for.

"It says here," He pointed at something on the screen, "That Raltses are able to sense the emotion of the people and pokémon around them. Have, have you ever been able to do that?"

Sensing emotions?

I put my hand on my chin and thought. There was a strange feeling I got whenever I opened myself to use my powers, but I don't think that was what he was talking about. The only other thing I could think off was a faint memory from when I was just born. I remembered opening myself up but in a different way. Nothing happened and I never really tried doing again.

I shook my head.

"Can you do it, like, at all?"

I shrugged. Just because trying it so long ago hadn't worked didn't mean that it wouldn't work now.

"Want to try it?"

I figured that there was no harm in trying. Being able to sense things just by their emotions sounded pretty useful for battle anyway.

I nodded and closed my eyes. Once again I opened myself up to the sea of power around me. I felt the power pool into me like usual but instead focused on the power in the area around me.

Just like the Petalburg, Dewford was a collection of orderly boxes filled with chaos. The sea, on the other hand, was still strange to me. The power there was split in two. The area above was calm and empty, the power there flowed openly like a gentle sea breeze. Fitting all thing considered. But the other half, the underneath part.

It was chaos incarnate. Power swirled and flowed everywhere with no rhyme or reason. It was a little like the chaos of the forest but worse. In the forest, I could latch onto and keep myself steady by finding the underlying order of nature. The order within chaos that was wholly absent there.

When I had first seen it back on the boat, I had tried to get a closer look. When I did so, I felt myself get sucked in by the arbitrary ebbs and flows of the powers. I reached out to take hold of some of the power, thinking that doing so would help me handle this.

Instead, I felt the power latch around me and pull. I was dragged into the underneath, power torrenting all around me. It buffeted me, the power hitting in random strikes that overwhelmed me.

I had no choice, I cut myself off and snapped out of my trance. I almost collapsed but Nikki had been next to me at the time. He had caught me in time and I hadn't hit the floor.

He had made sure I was alright and after a bit of charades I had managed to explain to him what happened. For the rest of the voyage, I had been careful to not stray too deeply into the underneath.

But I had learned my lesson and I hadn't fallen in since.

I looked away from the sea and focused on my immediate surroundings. I then reduced it even further, so that it was just the people around us. I reduced it again so that it was just Nikki, Laura, and the two other humans. One finale reduction and it was just Nikki in my range.

It was hard, but I could see him. He was a formless mass, and the only reason I could tell it was him was because I knew ahead of time that he was there. He was a multi-colored weird blob-like thing that only suggested a human form. I looked deeper into him, trying to feel him. As I did so, I realized something strange about him.

Instead of a blob with no real texture, Nikki was made up of what looked like strings. Tiny streams of powers that crisscrossed and bound themselves together into a mass. And sticking out from where Nikki's heart would have been, was a single thread just floating in the void in front of me.

Somehow I knew that all I had to do was pull the string and Nikki's emotions would unravel and be able for me to read.

I reached out towards the lone string, when I hesitated. As my hand got closer, I started to feel a foreboding feeling that was somehow familiar to me. But I kept going. Even if it felt weird, it was still something that I wanted to do.

I touched the strand and the world went black.

I floated in the void. All of the power around me had faded away. I saw something in the distance, a memory of another time. Even in the darkness of the void, it still felt dark. It was expelling a purple haze, and it was getting closer.

It floated in front of me and the purple mist formed tentacles that wrapped around me. I struggled, but no matter what I did it was no use.

"Let me go!" I screamed into the void. Instead of following my commands, it instead formed one more tentacle that slowly approached my forehead.

It touched me, and I screamed.

 _Useless, worthless, the one who ruined everything. I hate you, hate you, hate you, I hate you with all I have!_

"Stop, please!"

 _You disgust me, you are a useless child that should have never been born._ _I hate you, hate you, hate you, I hate you with all I have!_

"Please let me go."

 _You cost the rest of us everything. We would have been fine if wasn't for you. I hate you, hate you, hate you, I hate you with all I have!_

"But what did I do, why did you hate me?"

 _I spent every day and every night in fear of you, of fear of the monster I'd birthed. I hate you, hate you, hate you, I hate you with all I have!_

"Mother what did I do?" I let out one finale scream into the void before I felt the last of my strength leave me. My limbs went slack, and I felt myself fade away.

* * *

"Brook!" I yelled out as I caught her as she collapsed. I froze as she started shrieking. I picked her up and she reacted by latching onto me.

"What's going on?" Laura and the others rushed over to me.

"I don't know, she tried out that empathy sense you told me about and then this happened."

"She needs a pokécenter." Bruce's uncle told us. "Bruce, take them there now!"

"Alright right this way." Bruce ran off with Laura and I chasing after him. Brook's shrieks of pain slowly got weaker and weaker, until they eventually stopped.

"We're here." I breathed out a thanks to Bruce as I rushed into the pokécenter.

"Hello, can you help my Ralts?" I asked her as I held Brook out.

"What happened?" The nurse asked with her eyes narrowed.

I explained everything about Brook's empathy sense as quickly as possible. As I did so, the nurse's eyes softened until they only held concern.

"I see. It doesn't sound like a physical issue. In fact, it looks like she already recovering." I looked down at Brook who had opened her eyes and was struggling to pull herself up.

"Brook are you okay?"

She put on a weak smirk and gave me the shakiest thumbs up yet.

"If she's feeling better, you might want to return her to her pokéball so we can do a full examination." I followed the Nurse's instruction and watched anxiously as Brook's pokéball went in alongside Shroomish's.

"Well," The nurse said as she read off the screen. "Looks like she's fine physically. Whatever the issue was, it was probably psychological in nature. I would recommend not using her empathy sense until you've had a chance to see someone about it. Another trainer with a member of the ralts line maybe."

She handed me back Brook and Shroomish. I thanked her for the help and clipped both of them back onto my breast pocket.

"So what did she say?" Laura and Bruce had been waiting for me near the entrance of the pokécenter. Brue took a step back to let Laura and I talk.

"She said that the problem was psychological." Laura's eyebrow rose.

"What do you mean?"

I explained how I had been worrying about Brook's empathy sense. Up to the disastrous attempt at using it that led to Brook screaming like that.

"So what did she recommend?"

"Don't have Brook use her empathy sense until she's had a chance to talk to someone about what's wrong. She specifically meant someone with a member of the ralts line on their team."

"You know anyone like that?"

"Kind of," I grimaced at the idea. "He's a friend of a family member and he has a Gallade." Part of me was reluctant to ask Brendan to contact Wally. The older boy had been a friend of a friend for years now. Trying to make it on my own and get out of my cousin shadow didn't exactly work out if I was asking him for help for every little thing.

But this was serious. I would have to be a terrible trainer if I let something as dumb as pride keep me from getting my first pokémon the help she needed.

I resolved to contact Brendan to pass a message to Wally later that day.

Of course, it was at that moment that I realized something that would probably be the cause of my death. I decided to forget about it for now.

We walked out of the center and went to the sea wall. I sat down and took out Brook's pokéball. I sent her out and immediately steadied her with my other arm.

"How are you feeling?"

Brook gave me a tired grin. She was covered in sweat and despite her grin, she looked exhausted.

"Hey we can talk about what happened later, do you want to just rest for now?"

Brook bit her lip and looked off to the side. After a second or two she let out a sigh and nodded.

"Just come out of your pokéball when you're ready," I recalled her and go up.

"Well, it looks like you two have it handled from here." Bruce rubbed the back of his head. He told us how to get to the gym from here and went back home.

"You going to go contact that friend of a family member?" Laura inquired as we watched Bruce head back up the Stone Walk.

"Kind of, I'm going to contact the family member to pass a message along."

"Come on then, the pokécenter has camera phones that we can use. Way better than a voice-only pokégear. Hey, what's wrong?"

"Well, you see," I said as the thing I forgot caught up to me. "I haven't really contacted my family since I left Petalburg."

"What why? I thought you were just calling them when I wasn't paying attention because you were one of those kids that gets super embarrassed when they tell their parents 'I love you' or something."

"What? No, I just kind of, sort, forgot my pokénav on my desk the morning I left on my journey."

There was a moment of silence.

"So is that like a pokégear or…?"

"Can a pokégear call people by wirelessly connecting to the phone network?"

"Yes?"

"Then yes, like a pokégear." I rubbed my face to try to soothe the headache that I knew was coming. "I can't believe that I left it on my bed. I double checked and triple checked to make sure that I wasn't forgetting anything and I still forgot something."

I let out a sigh as I dragged myself back into the pokécenter and into the now barely used phone room. It was a rectangular room with a large desk set by the wall that went down the length of the room. On the table were a row of phones separated by dividers to prevent eavesdropping.

I knew that people used phone rooms like this before things like pokégears and pokénavs became popular. In my entire life, I had never seen one used, ever.

I sat down at the phone, cringing as I head the chair creak under me. The swivel in the chair must have been old and rusty with how much noise it made with every little movement. I took the phone and hovered my fingers above the keypad.

I gently tapped the pad without actually pressing any of the buttons. I hummed a little song and tapped my feet a little before the worrying sound from the chair stopped me.

"I don't know my house number," I admitted to myself finally. Why would I; my number was saved to the pokénav anyway? Before this very moment, I had no real reason to memorize my house number.

I glanced at the small phone book on the desk. Although maybe 'book' was a bit of an overstatement. It was more a small pamphlet. I shuffled through it to pass a little time. The longer I spent pretending to try to remember my number the less embarrassing it will be when I walked back to Laura having not talked to my mother.

The phone book had the standard list of numbers you would expect from a public phone room. Well at the very least the phone book was new. A quick glance at the inside of the cover told me that it had been published this year. That meant that at the very least, the numbers were probably correct.

I saw numbers for police stations, schools, local business, other pokécenters, gyms, and even someone selling their service as a 'witch.'

I paused, my fingers caught mid page turn.

I furiously flipped back a few pages and slapped the book open on the page I wanted. I grabbed the phone and punched the numbers in.

I heard it ring and after a few seconds, I hear someone pick up.

"Hello, this is the Petalburg gym, how may I help you."

"Uncle Norman?" I asked hoping that it was him.

"Nicholas? Where are you?"

"I'm at the pokécenter in Dewford."

There was a short pause on the line.

"Well, that was fast. Anyway, it's not important right now. Why are you calling the gym instead of your mother? She's been worried sick since you won't accept her calls."

"Yeah about that," I felt my face get flushed. "Could you do me a favor and tell me my house number please?"

He went silent on the other end of the line for so long that I thought line cut off for a moment.

"Don't," He said suddenly, startling me and almost making me drop the phone. "Don't you have it saved on your pokégear?"

"I do." I nodded even though he couldn't see me.

"So what's the problem?"

"I kind of, sort of, forgot my pokégear in my room the day I set off."

I could hear him take a deep breath on the other side of the line.

"Alright listen carefully and write this down if you can." I made sure to memorize the number, thanked my Uncle and hung up.

I punched in the number as quickly as I could before I had the chance to forget it.

It was a memorable call, my mom chewed me out, promised to mail me my pokénav to the pokécenter here in Dewford and gave me the chance to speak to Brendan.

"Hey Nikki, how's the journey going." Brendan's smile almost made it harder to do this.

"Not well, I need you to do me a favor," I told him as I felt my pride shrivel and die inside of me. "Could you get in touch with Wally for me?"

"Wally, any particular reason why?"

I explained to him the whole fiasco with Brook's empathy sense.

"That does sound serious. I'm sure that I can get Wally to lend you a hand if he's not doing anything at the moment."

"Thanks Brendan, I really mean it."

"Don't worry about it. And maybe next time, don't forget your pokénav on your bed." He teased.

"See you later cousin." I hung up the phone and walked away.

"So any luck?"

I told Laura that the family friend was probably willing to help us and that my mom was going to mail me the pokénav.

"So we're going to be stuck here until it arrives then. Sounds fine by me, gives me more time to goof off on a tropical paradise."

"Didn't you say you had something to drop off here?"

"Yeah but it's not a high priority or anything. I was actually thinking of doing it while you had your gym battle."

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"When are you going to get in your gym battle?"

"Oh, I'm not going to challenge the Hoenn gyms."

There was a short pause as I processed what she said.

"You're not going to challenge the gyms? You need at least two badges to get most jobs. What are you even traveling for then?"

She smirked as she took off her backpack and got out a small case. She clicked it open and I saw five empty spaces and three pieces of metal that I didn't recognize.

"Kanto badges?"

"That's right, those there are the soul badge, rainbow badge, and thunder badge." She suddenly got a heavy look on her face. "Trust me that last one was a nightmare to get. As for why I'm traveling."

She smirked.

"I'm planning on seeing as many of Hoenn's sights and attractions as possible."

"So you're on a region-wide sightseeing tour?"

"Pretty much."

For some reason, her cheesy smile pissed me off.

Before I could respond, we were interrupted by the sound of a commotion coming from further down the Stone Walk.

It was Bruce, standing in front of what looked like two older guys.

"Brucie, just give up man," One of them said as he laid his arm around Bruce's shoulder. Bruce shifted his shoulder, knocking the arm off him.

"Hey now Brucie," The other said. "The quicker you cough up the cash the sooner we can leave you alone."

"Hey what's going on?" All three of them turned around to look at us. The one who hadn't put his arm around Bruce narrowed his eyes.

"Nothing that matters to you tourist." He said with a sneer.

"Oh hey guys," Bruce said as he walked over and took a spot next to us. "Not much, just dealing with these two idiots." She sounded like he was trying to sound friendly while keeping his rage in check.

He was not doing well.

"Hey who are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you two!" He said finally losing his cool. "Think you can just walk around the Stone Walk and intimidate people for money, you have some nerve."

"We do what we want punk!" One of them yelled as he took out a pokéball. "What are you going to do about it?"

"We owned you the last time we fought," The other one took out two pokéballs and waved them around in a mocking dance. "What makes you think this will be any different?"

"Hey everyone, what's going on?" A voice from behind the three of us ended the 'right-before-the-fight' atmosphere right then and there. Both of the thugs gulped and started freaking out. They put away their pokéballs with the speed of an unladen Swellow and held up their hands to show that they were empty.

We turned around to get a look at our new ally.

"Brawly you made…" Bruce stopped once he saw the reason that the two idiots had freaked out. To be fair, both Laura and I had our jaws dropped as well.

"Oh not much man, just messing around."

"Yeah messing around."

"Well, that's good." The Dewford gym leader said as he used his shoulder to adjust the fridge he was carrying on his back. The machop next to him grunted as it carried a much smaller microwave in its arms. "I've been hearing about some troublemakers on the Stone Walk recently. You five wouldn't happen to know anyone like that would you?"

The man barely even sounded tired.

"Nope, doesn't sound like anyone we know, right bud?" Idiot One softly elbowed Idiot Two.

"That's right, we haven't seen nothing."

Brawly narrowed his eyes at the idiots. He looked over at the three of us as if he was expecting us to answer too.

We told him that we also hadn't seen anything worth commenting.

"Kay then, if you say so." With that done the two idiots excused themselves and ran away as fast as they could. Brawly smirked as he watched them leave before adjusting the fridge again.

"Well, I have to go finish transporting this for Mrs. Nancy. She asked me to help move some of her old stuff now that she's moving into her kid's place."

"Oh, that's nice of you," Bruce commented before suddenly looking like he remembered something. "Oh, are you going to be doing that all day? Because I'm pretty sure that these two trainers were planning to challenge your gym."

"Oh no just him," Laura cleared up before we could start any misunderstanding. "I'm just along for the ride."

"Well this should take me most of the day, but I'm free to take challengers all day tomorrow. What number badge is this for?" I clamed up as the gym leader talker right to me.

Yeah, sure my Uncle Norman was a gym leader too but he was Uncle Norman first and foremost. This, on the other hand, felt different.

"It's my first badge, Brawly, sir." I wasn't sure why I added the sir at the end. Just slipped out I guess.

"Hey, relax man, what's your name kid?"

"Nichols Maple," I told him, a part of me happy that I finally had the chance to tell someone my actual, real name.

"I thought your name was Nikki?" Laura chimed in.

"Nikki's a nickname. I thought I told you."

"Wait are you Norman's kid?" Brawly cut in.

"No, Uncle Norman is my dad's older brother," I explained for what felt like the thousandth time in my life.

"Huh, never knew that Norman had a brother," Not a lot of people did. Being overshadowed ran in our part of the family, even if dad never showed any signs of bitterness. "Well, I'll be looking forward to our match. See you tomorrow Nikki." I cringed at the use of my nickname.

He walked off, fridge still on his back like it was no big deal.

"So that's what Brendan meant when he said that he was intense. Have to say, not what I would have guessed."

"So what now?" Laura asked. I glanced down at the pokéball clipped to my shirt.

"I'm going to head back to the pokécenter and wait for Brook to finish resting."

At the mention of Brook, Laura's smile fell.

"Alright then, you do that. I have a few things to take care of before I turn in my package. I'll see you later tonight. Try to get us a room overlooking the beach."

She walked off, heading south. I worried for a moment that she would end up getting lost, but figured that in a town like this, she could always just ask for directions to get back to the pokécenter.

I didn't get the chance to really take in the pokécenter the first time I saw it. Mostly due to panicking about Brook. It was built like one of the smaller hotels in Dewford resort. A larger base floor and then a tower sprouting from the side of the building closest to the beach.

I asked the nurse in the front and showed her my trainer I.D. for verification. As far as I knew, you had to have a trainer I.D. to use any of the pokécenter's facilities. I still wasn't sure why I had been able to get Brook checked the way I had without showing it.

I asked the nurse and she told me that a nurse could check over any pokémon if they deemed it an emergency. With how panicked I had looked, and how much pain Brook looked like she was in, she had decided that my situation counted.

"By the way, my friend wanted to know if we could get a room facing the ocean. Standard room with two beds if you could. I know that they're all probably full, but I still have to ask."

"You're just in luck", she smiled. "One just opened up a few minutes ago. The pair that were staying there just left." She entered something into her computer and a small drawer in her desk popped open. "Here you go," She took out a keycard from the drawer. "You're room number is on the card."

I thanked her and headed upwards.

Our room was on the fourth floor. Just high enough to get a nice view out the window but low enough for the ride up to be nice and quick.

I set my bag down and sat down by the desk and chair next to the window. I brought out Brook's pokéball and set it down on the desk. Brook liked the sea, that much was for sure. The happiest I'd ever seen her besides the day we met was the first time she got a good look at the sea from the boat.

It would be a nice thing for her to see when she came out. In the meantime, I decided to wait for her.

* * *

By the time I woke up, the sun was gone. Looking out the window I could see the long shadow of the building looming past the sand and into the sea. I came out of my pokéball and stretched out my arms. I felt better, I could barely even remember what happened earlier.

Well, I could remember parts of it. Trying to access that 'empathy sense' thing that Nikki had been talking about. It had actually gone pretty well at first. I had the 'sensing people' part down. The only issue was when I tried to identity Nikki's emotions.

When I pulled the string, the world went dark and the next thing I remembered was coming to in Nikki's arms.

Speaking of Nikki, he was on the bed, fast asleep with his book open and covering his face.

The desk and the bed were pretty close. I leaned over the side and glanced down. I backed up and put myself in a starting position. I burst into a run and jumped at the edge of the table. I tumbled onto the bed and crashed into Nikki's side.

To my surprise, he didn't wake up. I climbed up to my feet and went over to his head. I took careful steps as I walked, trying to not make too much noise.

"Oh yeah he's out cold," I smirked at the sight of a certain red and white ball still clipped to Nikki's shirt. I took a deep breath and opened myself up. I relaxed as I felt the sea of power around me. I hadn't messed up my power earlier.

I grabbed Shroomish's pokéball with my telekinesis and brought it over to me. I set it down on the bed and clicked the circle.

"Hey Brook." Shroomish shook himself a bit like he had just woken up and was trying to keep it that way. "You feeling better?"

"You… you saw all that?" I felt my cheeks heat up.

"Yeah, it sounded pretty bad." He said nonchalantly. "Figured you wanted to talk about it. Why else get me out of my pokéball?"

"I just wanted your help waking Nikki up." I cleared up, hoping that it would be enough for Shroomish to drop it.

"I see. You want to talk about it anyway?" He said, refusing to drop it.

"Maybe later Shroomish," I told him with a glare. "For now, help me wake Nikki up."

I couldn't help but smile as we climbed on top of him. Well, I climbed on top of him and then had to help Shroomish up. He wasn't going to be able to do it himself otherwise, since, you know, he had no arms.

Nikki mumbled in his sleep as we stood on his chest. I shuffled over to his face and grabbed the book with both arms. I pulled it off him slowly and carefully. Or at least I tried to. At some point during that, I lost my grip on the book. My eyes widened as the book fell to the side and I lost my balance. I fell as well, right into Nikki's face.

"What's going on?" Nikki mumbled as he opened his eyes. Eyes which were literally right next to mine. "Whoa!" He shifted back in surprise of waking up to something right in his face. Shroomish let out a similar cry of surprise as Nikki's movement made him fall off.

Even if my vaguely formed plan had failed, I still couldn't help but laugh at Nikki's face.

"Brook why?" he said as he rubbed his eyes before he suddenly stopped moving.

"Brook!" He leaned forward and picked me up. "Are you okay?"  
I grinned and nodded. I would have done the thumbs up but my arms were a bit stuck at the moment.

"What happened?" He asked as he sat me down on the bed. He crossed his in front of me and Shroomish waddled towards us, forming a triangle.

"Okay, how am I going to do this…?" I mumbled to myself as I tried to think of how I was going to explain what happened without words.

One very long round of vague psychic communication later, Nikki had a rough idea of what happened. Afterword's he told me that he had found a trainer with Gallade that he thought might be able to help me figure out what happened to me. We wouldn't see them for a while, so I wouldn't be using my empathy sense in battle any time soon.

Which lead us to one finale topic.

"Do you think you're up for the gym battle?" Nikki asked me, the look of concern plain to see on his face.

Was I? I thought I was. For everything that happened earlier today, I felt better now. Plus it was a good chance to show off the training that we had done on the boat.

I gave Nikki the thumbs up.

"Alright, then how about you Shroomish?" He asked our other teammate. Not sure why he bothered, I could totally handle this on my own. Still, I guess it was good for him to get some more experience in.

"Yeah, I'm good to go."

"Shroomish, he can't understand what you're saying."

"Oh right, forgot about that."

He nodded at Nikki instead.

"I'm really starting to wonder what you two talk about." Nikki tried to sound annoyed at us, but the smile on his face gave him away too easily. "So since we have a match tomorrow, think it's time to talk strategy."

We both nodded.

"Okay so Brawly tends to go a bit easier on people challenging him for their first badge, but he's no pushover. We can't underestimate him. Now he's pretty well known for using…"

We spent a good chunk of time, just talking about the plan for tomorrow. Laura came back near the end, looking suspiciously satisfied.

We ate dinner and got ready for our first gym battle the day after.

I went to sleep confident, knowing that I had nothing to worry about.

* * *

I stood outside the gym alone. Well, mostly alone. Brook and Shroomish were in their pokéballs, but my human companion had ditched me for the day apparently.

The gym itself was a normal looking building with a large board on top that said 'GYM' in big dark brown letters. It was right on the Stone Walk, right across from the beach.

A part of me noted that I hadn't gotten off the Stone Walk since landing on Dewford Island. On one hand, I felt a bit crummy for staying in the tourist section of Dewford for my entire stay. But on the other hand, I had to hand it to the Stone walk, I'd never needed to get off it for any reason.

Oh well, it wasn't like I wouldn't get a chance to explore more of the town at some point. If I couldn't do it this time, I could always just come back and explore on a future visit.

I walked into the gym. The inside was plain, looking like a mix of a dojo and a human gymnasium with a large regulation size arena in the center of the room.

Brawly himself was off to the side talking to an older girl dressed in workout clothes. The sound of the door opening must have caught his ear because he cut off his conversation and waved me over.

"Oh hey Nikki," He greeted me jovially. "Nice to see you, I've been looking forward to having this battle since yesterday." He gestured towards the girl. "This is Tessa, she'll be the refereeing our match."

"Nice to meet you," I held my hand out for her to shake. "My names Nicholas Maple, from Petalburg."

"Maple? Petalburg?" Her eyes widened at the name and city. I held back a sigh. "Any relation to Norman Maple?"

"Yeah, he's my Uncle," I told her matter-of-factly. "It's not a big deal." I tried downplaying it and hoping that it wouldn't get brought up too much.

"Alright then," She said with narrowed eyes. "But if you think that being a Gym Leaders' nephew is going to get you special treatment, then you have another thing coming kid."

I rolled my eyes. If I had been planning to take advantage if my familial connections, I'd have challenged this gym a year ago with a Torchic.

"I wouldn't expect anything else." I protested.

"Well said Nikki," Brawly crossed his arms and smiled cheekily. "Go take your position on the far side of the stadium, let's get this started."

We stood across from each other on opposite sides of the field, Tessa standing to the side halfway between us.

"This match between Nicholas of Petalburg," She managed to work in a quick, subtle glare" and Brawly of the Dewford Gym will now begin. Both battlers are to use two pokémon each. The first to knock out both of their opponent's pokémon wins. As gym leader, Brawly must choose his pokémon first."

Brawly smiled and took out a pokéball from his belt. If every account of his battles ever were any indication, there was at least a ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent chance that it was a machop.

"Go," Brawly threw the pokéball in the air as it split open "Machop, let's put this rookie through his paces!"

The machop appear in a flash of white with one knee on the ground. He stood and flexed at me.

I found myself satisfied that I had guessed right even if it had been near impossible to guess wrong. It didn't even help me that much, I knew what pokémon I was going to start with either way. I wanted to save Brook for the second fight with whatever pokémon he saved for last, probably a makuhita. Which logically left only…

"Take the field," I threw my own pokéball, "Shroomish!

Shroomish landed and let out a shrill cry and starred Brawly's Machop down.

"Machop, start things up with a karate chop," Brawly ordered.

Machop ran up to Shroomish, raising their arm mid-run.

"Shroomish, get ready for it."

Brawly grinned. "Are you really sure that asking your Shroomish to doge is the best move."

He had assumed that I meant for Shroomish to get ready to dodge. Perfect.

Machop's hand swung down on Shroomish. He gritted his teeth and clenched up as the chop hit the top of his head.

"Now's our chance Shroomish!"

"Wait what?" Brawly cried out.

It was the first plan that I came up with on the boat. I knew that Shroomish had no chance to dodge an attack from Machop. So our best bet was to let the attack hit and take advantage of the close range. Shroomish breathed in and released a stunspore right into Machop's face. Machop staggered back, their hands trying to get the spores out of his face.

"Shroomish, shoot him with some leech seeds." The seeds emerged from Shroomish's head and launched at Machop. The seeds latched onto Machop and sprouted into vines that wrapped around them. The vines glowed red and there was a loud cracking sound as machop acted like they'd just been shocked. Shroomish glowed the same hue as the vines as the barely formed bruise on top of Shroomish's head faded away into nothing.

Teaching Shroomish leech seed on the boat was super worth it.

"Shroomish, tackle him." Shroomish shifted his head down and launched himself at Machop. He hit Machop right in the gut, knocking the superpower pokémon flat on their behind.

"Shroomish finish Machop off! Get close and use absorb!"

"Machop, get up and hit Shroomish with a karate chop!"

Shroomish, sensing the amount of urgency in the situation, calmly waddled over to Machop.

Machop punched the ground, trying to use their fist get off the ground. However as much as they struggled, they would stop either from the spores freezing their muscles or the seeds activating and shocking them.

Shroomish tapped Machop's arm with his head and started glowing green.

After a few seconds of dealing with stun spores, leech seeds, and a continuing absorb, Machop collapsed to the ground.

"Machop is no longer able to battle, Shroomish wins." Tessa looked impressed despite herself.

"Machop return," Brawly looked impressed as well as he returned Machop to his ball. "I have to say, you're doing pretty well for a new trainer. You're Cousin or Uncle teach you any of that?"

"A few things here and there, but you don't grow up around a gym leader and future champion without picking up at least a few things."

With one pokémon down and one left to go, I reached for Brook's pokéball. His makuhita was up next, and I was sure that Brook could handle it no problem. This match was so in the bag, that I was about to break through the fabric. What could possibly make me lose this…

I stopped myself from finishing that thought. I was getting full of myself. I needed to keep a cool head and hold off the celebration until after I won.

Still, I hoped that I had managed to shut my thoughts up fast enough to avoid having jinxed this match.

"Nicely done dude," Brawly said as reached for a pokéball on his belt. He stopped halfway through before suddenly getting a weird smile on his face. "In fact, I think you need a something a bit more challenging."

I had jinxed it.

He went for a different pokéball on his belt and held it up.

"Let's so how you do against something unorthodox." He said as he tossed the pokéball. "Go, Riolu."

A strange pokémon I had never seen before appeared on the field. They were a blue, canine-like pokémon standing on their hind legs. They had big black floppy ears and what looked like metal half-spheres on their paws. They took a martial arts stance and glared at Shroomish.

"I got this little guy from an eccentric dude dressed like his pokémon. I've been training him up for gym battles and I feel like he's ready for his first match."

I looked at the Riolu. He looked much faster than Shroomish did and there was no way that Brawly would fall for my Shroomish trap twice.

"Shroomish, return," I called Shroomish back. Not only because I didn't think that Shroomish could win this, but because I knew of a certain Ralts that had to be convinced to not take on both of Brawly's pokémon by herself. "Go Brook!"

Brook appeared on the field and looked over at her opponent. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, as though sizing up the Riolu.

* * *

I sized up this 'Riolu' in front of me. He didn't look like much. Even if he wasn't the opponent we had planned for, I still felt confident.

I bet that if I had future sight, I wouldn't have found a single future in which I lost. Still, as the eventual winner, I had to be gracious in triumph. I also had to make sure not to beat him too badly.

"Hey," I called out, trying to be friendly before the slaughter started. "Let the best battler win."

"Don't worry," he barked, "I will."

Change of plan, I was going to crush him. I closed my eyes and opened myself to the power around me. I let it flow into me and clenched my fist. These hands of mine were filled with a great power and it was all for him.

"Begin!" The human in the center called out, starting the fight.

"Riolu, use bulk up."

"Brook, use confusion." I blasted Riolu as he flexed his muscles. I raised an eyebrow as Riolu failed to move in response to the blast. He still took damage though, so I was ahead in my book, even with his bigger muscles.

"Riolu, use quick attack."

"Brook dodge."

The dog burst towards me and I pointed my arms to the side, jumped and boosted away. I landed to the side. My feet barely touched the ground when I heard the gym leader yell.

"Riolu, chase that ralts!"

"Brook keep dodging."

I looked back and saw Riolu coming right at me. I gulped, re-angled my arms, and sent myself flying away from Riolu and towards the gym leader.

We were on opposite sides of the arena now, reversed from when we had started. Riolu had stopped chasing me, looking like he hadn't wanted to keep it up if I could dodge this well. I smirked at him.

"Brook now, use confusion!" I sent two blasts Riolu's way.

"Riolu, use quick attack to dodge then get in close."

To my annoyance, Riolu managed to avoid both attacks perfectly and was now coming straight at me.

"Brook, boost over him."

What? That would leave me a sitting duck and leave him free to jump right at me facefirst.

Oh, I saw the plan now.

I angled my arms low and jumped, an explosion of psychic energy sending me flying above Riolu's head.

"Riolu, quick attack into the air," Brawly called out as Riolu kicked off the ground and flew straight at me.

"Brook use confusion, the strongest you can manage!"

Riolu's eyes widened as I pointed my arms at him. Time seemed to slow down as the green tinted blast of air erupted out of me. The blast hit him square in the chest. The air must have gotten forced out of him because he gasped after I hit him.

However, there was one small problem. I had expected the blast to send him back to the ground. Instead, he was still flying at me, just with not as much speed as when he had started.

Even with the air forced out of him, he managed to keep his wits together and twisted in the air. He hit me in the chest with his shoulder, paying me back for earlier.

I coughed up a bit of spit as I felt my lungs empty. We both fell to the ground. I managed a pair of small blasts that slowed me down enough to land on my feet. Riolu instead tested in the air and landed on his feet naturally.

We both stood roughly where we had started the fight.

There was a small break in the fight as we just stared at each other from across the field.

"Brook you okay?"

"Riolu, can you keep going?"

We both gave our trainers an affirmative.

"You're… pretty… good." I told Riolu in-between pants.

"I could… say… the same… about… you." We had both taken some hard hits, there was no point in hiding that.

"Still… going to… win though." I smirked as I crossed my arms like I had started the fight.

"Keep… dreaming." He smirked back as he took the same pose that he had started in.

"Riolu, use quick attack."

"Brook, use confusion." We replayed the earlier parts of our fight. Riolu dodged my attacks with sheer speed and I dodged him by boosting out of the way. We made a complete circuit around the arena when I realized that I couldn't keep this up.

Nikki apparently agreed with me because he gave me different command this time.

"Brook, use confusion on the ground, as many weak blasts as you can and as fast as you can."

"Riolu, get in close and use force palm." The blue dog ran at me, palms forward and crackling with energy.

I aimed downwards and unleashed a barrage of weak psychic attacks on the dirt floor of the field.

Riolu stopped in place as the dust covered him. Both trainer and pokémon covered their faces from the dust cloud. Riolu growled and kept charging at me anyway.

"Brook now!" Strategy number two that we had come up with. It was meant to be used against makuhita but this worked anyway.

Riolu reached the place where I had been standing. He thrust his palm forward through the dust. The dust was blown away, revealing nothing.

"Riolu, behind you."

He turned around just in time for me unleash the strongest confusion I could manage.

Strategy number two. It had been meant to be used against Brawly's Makuhita, but it worked perfectly here. Use confusion to kick up a dust cloud, and use the dust to disguise a teleport to the foe's behind.

Follow up with a strong enough confusion and you had one Riolu taking a face full of psychic energy. I even managed to get him to step back this time. He was really hurting now, all I needed was one more hit and this fight was over.

"Riolu, use force palm while they're still close."

"Brook, teleport into the dust." Time slowed down for me as I felt the sea of power around me. I found a suitable spot in the dust and willed the power to form a path between where I was and the where I wanted to be.

I felt myself turn into pure psychic energy for a split second before I found myself where I had wanted to be.

Teleport was a magnitude more exhausting than just boosting out of the way, but it was instant and got me into cover.

Specifically, a spot where the dust hadn't been blown away by the force palm but still pretty close to Riolu. I got ready to hit him again and finish the fight.

"Riolu, use quick attack." Riolu dashed away from where he had been standing. At first, I thought he did it to avoid my attack, but to my surprise, it looked like he was coming right at me.

He jumped right as he was getting close and went through the air, foot first, the dust parting as he came. I didn't have time to dodge, the best I could do was angle my body so that he wouldn't hit me directly.

It worked, sort of. Instead of hitting me center mass, he had kicked my arm. It fell to the side, aching. Somehow, I knew that I wouldn't be using it for at least a little while.

"Wait how?" I heard Nikki exclaim a question that I really wanted to know myself. With all this dust he shouldn't have been able to see me. However, it looked like Brawly wasn't going to just tell us.

"Riolu, force palm!"

Riolu landed on the ground and sent his palm straight at me. I raised my other, still-useable arm to block. It wasn't the best plan, but it was the best I had at the moment.

My knees almost buckled as the palm made contact. Lightning coursed through my veins and I was pretty sure I heard a distant screaming noise that sounded like my voice.

"Brook are you okay?" I heard Nikki yell. Somehow, I knew that there was only one answer I could give.

"I can still fight!" I yelled into the sky despite knowing that he couldn't understand me. Still, I think he got the message. I growled at Riolu, who as just standing in front of me with an idiotic look on his face. I growled, deciding that I needed to punish him for underestimating me.

Both of my arms were useless at the moment so that was out. Instead, I gritted my teeth, swung my head back, and then head-butted Riolu right in his stupid face.

I saw splotches of color in my vision as we both stumbled away from each other. I could feel my veins tighten, how dare this upstart not fall after that. I said that he needed one last hit, not one last good hit.

"Riolu, use force palm to finish this up."

The dog recovered before I could and came at me, palm first like before. Somehow I knew that I would have to do. Both of my arms were useless so no confusions. My head was killing me so there was no way I could focus enough to pull off a teleport.

But we had one last trick up our sleeve and somehow I knew Nikki knew what I knew; we had to use it. I dug deep into myself in preparation for one last all-or-nothing attack.

Riolu's palm was close enough for me to feel the sparks when I heard the command.

"Brook, burst now!"

I drew as much of my inner power as I could and tried to pool it. I knew that I couldn't do it, but I didn't have to. I raised an eyebrow as I noticed that I managed to pool a bit more power than the last time I had done this. But it was nowhere near enough to use it properly.

A sphere of green psychic energy exploded out of me. I just barely saw Riolu's look of surprise as the sphere got him.

Every time I had hit Riolu before this, he had managed to stay still and not go flying.

That hadn't gone so well this time around. He was sent flying back, sailing past a stunned-looking Brawly. He landed, knocked out and out of the arena.

"Riolu is no longer able to continue." The human said, "Nikki is the winner."

"We won!" Nikki punched the air in celebration. I chirped and punched the air with him. Or at least I tried to, arms still didn't want to work with me.

"Riolu return." I waved my crushed opponent goodbye as he was recalled into his pokéball. Nikki ran onto the fields and picked me up.

"We did it Brook, well you did most of the hard parts, but we did it."

"You trained your Ralts well." Brawly told us as he and the other human approached us, "You've more than earned this."

He dug into his pocket and took out a small case containing what looked like a dozen or so pieces of blue metal that were vaguely shaped like a fist. I knew what they were, not from sight, but from hearing Nikki talk about them.

"I hereby present you with this knuckle badge," He said as he took out one of the many badges in the case and presented it to us. "This first badge symbolizes that you've learned the basics of pokémon training, and marks you as a real trainer."

I smiled. That badge was also our first step to entering the pokémon league.

Nikki accepted the badge and put it into a blue case that I had seen him looking at from time to time. He tanked Brawly and told him that he wanted to take me to the pokémon center right away.

"We did it Brook, one down, seven to go. Right partner?" He told me as we stepped outside.

I chirped happily before wincing in pain. My arms still stung a bit from that kick and force palm.

"Looks like you could use some rest." He told me as took my pokéball out. "You ready to take a nice long rest?"

I didn't bother answering him, instead opting to just fall asleep. The last thing I felt was the pokéball drawing me in. I had to rest for now. Like Nikki said, one down, seven to go.


	5. Episode 5

**episode 5: An Explosive farewell to Deford Island**

* * *

I had been expecting to leave Dewford Town as soon as Brook and Shroomish were all rested up from the gym battle. With my first badge in my case, I wanted to fill the slot next to it as quickly as possible. Not only that but the faster I met up with Wally the faster I could help Brook. The fastest way to do both would be to take the Granite path to Dewford Port and from there Rustboro.

There were just two issues with that. The first was that I had to wait two days for my pokénav to arrive through parcel. As far as problems went, it was pretty practical. The second, on the other hand, was a bit frivolous.

Specifically that both Laura and Brook had wanted to stay and enjoy Dewford Island's beaches.

I had been uneasy about spending our time like that, but both of them wore me down pretty quickly.

In the end, I had caved. Brook and Shroomish did well in the gym battle and they had been deserving of a little break.

And so, I had spent the last two days soaking up more sun and surfing more waves then I had expected to. Shroomish spent most of that time on the shore, enjoying the tropical island sun. Brook had even taken the chance to learn how to swim.

That is to say, she could float now. It wasn't amazing, but it was decent progress for two days of swimming practice.

But only a day later, my pokénav finally arrived and we said farewell to Dewford town.

Granite path was a rough and rocky trainer route that connected Dewford Town and Dewford Port. The mountains weren't too high up, most of the granite cave system was underground after all. Still, it had its own look to it. A mostly flat path surrounded by rocky outcrops, a few hardy bushes and the occasional cave leading into the caves.

It might not have been the most comfortable path, but I had to admit that the view of the ocean from the top off the rocky cliffs was a sight to behold.

Now if only I could have said the same thing about the company.

"I miss the beach!" Laura wailed as she looked at longingly at the ocean view.

"I know, you've said that like five times in the last two hours." I rolled my eyes at her antics. Brook chuckled even if I had caught her looking at the sea the same way a few times. Not that hard to do considering that she was riding on my shoulder.

"I know but I want to go swimming again. I bought a new swimsuit for this trip and I really want to use."

"Hoenn has more beaches than just Dewford," I told her knowing that it was useless. "You'll find a new place to swim soon enough."

Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by the sound of a loud roar in the distance.

We looked at each other and made an unspoken agreement. We ran towards the source of the sound as quickly as possible.

Our roar came from behind a particularly large, tall outcrop. We both sneaked around it and poked our heads out from behind the rocks.

Gray. Gray, and white. At first, that was all we saw. After a moment, I realized that I was looking at a particularly large Aggron. Stories of Aggron's causing giant landslides and earthquakes raced through my head. I grabbed Laura and hid us back behind the outcrop.

"That is one really bid Aggron." I gulped.

"Yeah, wonder what that smaller pokémon did to tick them off so much?"

I looked at Laura.

"What Smaller pokémon?"

"You didn't notice the Aggron glaring at a way smaller pokémon at their feet?"

Wondering if Laura was pulling my leg, I took a glance past the rocks.

There really was a smaller pokémon at the Aggron's feet. Specifically, a Mawile on both of their knees, with their arms outstretched over the ground. The Mawile was repeating the same bark over and over again. It looked like they were begging.

I wondered what it was that they were saying.

* * *

"I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" The small Pokémon droned on and on as she begged at the larger pokémon's feet. She would have looked pretty pathetic if it wasn't for the metal giant in front of her.

"Enough with the apologies." The Giant yelled. "There aren't enough 'sorry's' in the world to make up for that metal you tainted."

"I'm really sorry! How was I supposed to know that exposing the iron to water makes it rust?"

"Everyone knows that you idiot brat!" The giant roared and glared at the begging one.

"Well, how I was supposed to know if none of you ever teach me anything." She whined.

"None of us have time to deal with a deadweight brat like you!" He growled. "Get out my sight."

"So I'm free to go? Thanks Vorn. I promise that…"

My eyes widened as the Giant kicked the smaller pokémon, knocking her onto her back.

"Oh no." Laura squeaked

"I think I'm going to be sick." Nikki commentated.

"Useless brat. You pull something like this again and I'll toss you in the sea myself." He spat on the small pokémon's face before turning around and walking towards the outcropping. We all dashed back behind the rock to get out of sight.

We waited as each heavy step made the ground shake underneath us. But, for some reason, the steps began to fade away. After a few moments more, the steps were gone.

"How?" Nikki whispered as he looked at the outcrop. We walked around the outcrop wondering how the Giant could have vanished. On the other side of the outcrop was the smaller Pokémon still on the ground, and no Giant in sight.

"Where did the Aggron go?"

Oh, I had a name for the metal giant now. Neat. Thanks' Nikki.

"Probably this huge whole in the outcrop that looks like it leads into a cave." Nikki and I both followed Laura's pointing finger to the giant, gaping, hole in the rocks that we had both somehow missed.

"Man, did Vorn have to kick me that hard?" I heard someone mumble close to us before giving a soft chuckle. "Worth it though.

Oh right, the smaller pokémon. I activated my powers for a moment before jumping off Nikki's shoulder. A quick boost to slow my fall later and I was waddling over to her.

She was a weird yellow thing, maybe a little taller than me. Well, mostly yellow. Her feet, hands, ears, and top of head were a dark gray, almost black. Also, she had a thing sprouting from the top of her head. It was the same dark gray as the top of her head, except for a single yellow spot, and a row of weird looking white triangles.

"You okay? It looked like he really got you good." I asked as I leaned over her. She still had her eyes closed. In fact, if I hadn't heard her talking a few seconds ago I would have figured that she was asleep.

She slowly opened one eye and looked me over.

"No, Vorn's bark's way worse than his bite as long as you don't push him too far. I'm fine, he didn't kick me that hard. More importantly, who, and what are you?" She said sounding pretty calm for somehow who just got kicked around like a pebble.

"My names Brook, I'm a Ralts. How about you? Who, and what are you?"

"Name's Vimilky, I'm a Mawile."

We looked at each other in silence for a moment.

"I'm going to call you milk," I smirked.

"Don't you dare." She playfully glared at me with one eye.

"Going to do it. You can't stop me."

"I'll bite your face off." She said with a smirk that matched my own. "Hey what's that green thing around your neck?"

"It's called a bandana, makes me look cool," I said as I touched the green cloth around my neck.

"I guess sit does. So never seen you're kind around here before, what's your story?"

"Oh, I took a boat to get here. It's a big metal thing that can float on water that humans build to get around."

"Humans?"

"Yeah, this here is Nikki, my human, and his friend Laura." I pointed to each of them as I named them off.

She opened her other eye and pushed herself upward with her head thing. She gave both Nikki and Laura a pensive look, complete with a chin rub with one of her hands.

"Oh, Humans." My eyes widened as she suddenly turned around and made a run for it.

"Hey get back here!" I grabbed the back of her head thingy and hung on as she ran off.

"Brook!" I head Nikki yell just as he started running after us.

"Nikki!" And there was Laura, yelling as she started running too.

"You'll never take me alive humans!" Milk yelled as she kept running even as I held onto her.

"Why are you running?" I screamed as I felt my fingers start to cramp up.

"Because I'm not going to let myself get caught by a human. Not after all I've done to win this freedom in the first place."

"We're not trying to catch you!" I tried to explain. "We're just walking from one town to another and happened to be passing by when we saw what happened."

"Really?" She looked back at me but kept running.

"Yes really! Now stop running, my fingers are starting to slip."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Because I am… look out!" I cried out as I noticed that we were running straight into another outcrop.

"For what?" She didn't have the chance to look where she was running. She ran into the rocks at full speed. The momentum made her head stalk flip upwards, with me still latched on. Both the head stalk and my back hit the rocks.

The two of us collapsed in a pile in front of the rocks.

"For the rocks." I groaned in pain. "Look out for the rocks Milk."

"Don't call me… ugh, my face hurts."

"Brook, are you okay?" Nikki asked as he finally caught up with us. I gave him a thumbs up but didn't bother moving off Milk. "That's good, what about the Mawile?"

"Could you get off me?" Milk growled.

"In a bit. You're back is weirdly comfortable." The funny thing was, I wasn't even lying.

She apparently decided that the easiest way to get me off her would be to just push me off because she did just that. I heard two rough, punching sounds and she suddenly began to rise. I rolled off her back and onto the ground.

"A little over the top, don't you think?" I said with my face in the dirt.

"Not in the slightest." She said as she walked over and picked me up. "And seeing as how your trainer has just been standing there watching us, and not throwing red-and-white balls at me, I'll choose to believe you."

"Thank you,"

"Hey Brook," Nikki piped up. "What's going on?"

"Hey, what he say?" Milk asked.

I glanced between the human who couldn't understand Mawile and the Mawile that couldn't understand human.

"Oh boy this is going to take a while."

* * *

"So she was getting punished for making a mistake?" Brook, frowned and nodded before cringing. "Hey easy, you got a pretty bad cut on your back." I told her as I applied the disinfectant on the cut she had gotten when she hat hit the rock with her back.

"That's really messed up," Laura said as she watched me work. The Mawile, who was apparently named Vimilky if Brook's attempts at spelling had gone well, stood by the side a small bandage on her face.

She had gotten off lighter than Brook, a side effect of being a steel-type I guess. She only got a single scrape on her face that was quickly treated. I had wanted to treat Brook first but Brook had insisted on playing translator for Vimilky and I.

Something about wanting to get it over with as fast as possible if I understood Brook right. In her defense, it had taken longer than expected to get the whole story out of Brook.

"So what is she going to do now?" Laura asked as she looked at the Mawile with interest. Vimilky gave out a series of chirps that left me waiting on Brook for a translation.

"Alright you're good," I told Brook as I finished putting the bandage on her. "Go ahead and translate."

And so she did. A series of three images flashed in my head. The first was the Aggron, surrounded by an aura of menace. The second was all of us, surrounded by a much more peaceful aura. The last was a moving image, of the sun rising over the sea before moving across the sky and sinking under the horizon.

"She's worried about The Aggron so she wants to travel with us for a day to give The Aggron time to cool down?"

Brook looked over to Vimilky who shrugged. Brook looked back at me and nodded.

"Close enough huh?" Brook gave me thumbs up, leaving me wondering what minor detail I had gotten wrong.

"So we keep going with one more?" Laura shrugged her shoulders. "I got no problem with it."

"Neither do I really?" I smiled at Vimilky, "Looks like we're going to be traveling together for a little while."

Brook said something to Vimilky who chirped in agreement.

With that settled we made our way back to the main road. Fortunately for us, most of our detour had been a straight line, so we got back to the road pretty quick.

I walked with Brook on my right shoulder, with Laura walking to my left and Vimilky walking next to me to my right. Once we got back to the road, any and all attempts to have a conversation with Laura were overruled by the two pokémon chatting it up to my right.

Brook let out a few chirps that left Vimilky looking wide-eyed before she suddenly broke into a grin. She chirped something back, making Brook burst into laughter that almost made her fall of my shoulder.

I wondered what it was that they were saying.

* * *

"There is no way," Milk challenged, "How the heck are those, you said they were called pokéballs right?"

"That's right."

"Yeah, those. How the heck are they comfortable? They looked super cramped."

"They look that way, but on the inside they're huge."

"How?"

"I… I actually don't know. I mean, I have a giant recreation of the forest I grew up in and a target range in mine, but I don't really know how."

"That sound's cool."

"Yeah, it is. I wonder what Shroomish's looks like. Probably another forest."

"Who?"

"Oh that's right you haven't met him yet. "He's Nikki's other pokémon. He's a plant just about my size."

"So he did catch another pokémon!" She snapped her finger. "I thought you said that he didn't catch pokémon."

"Well, he didn't," I let out a nervous chuckle. "You see what happened was…"

I told her the story about how our group encountered a group of four humans fighting over Shroomish. How I had heroically saved Shroomish from his terrible fate by convincing him to come with us, and how we had fought off the other humans.

She bit her lips and narrowed her eyes over the course of my story. Probably a sign that she was greatly impressed by my courageous actions.

"Right." She nodded and gave me a weirdly nice smile.

"It's nice to see you getting along so well," Nikki commented sincerely. "I guess this is the first time you've had the chance to talk to another fairy type."

"What'd he say?" Milk asked.

"He said that it was nice for us to be getting along and something I don't really get. Something about how I finally have another, I think he said fairy type, to talk to."

"Oh, so you're a fairy type like me then."

"No, I'm not. I'm a psychic type, or at least, I thought I was."

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Milk suggested.

"Okay just give me a second."

Okay, how do I get across that with mental images? Something that would get the concept of 'question' across to him. Maybe that symbol that Nikki showed me a few days ago.

I sent him the image of the symbol on a plain white background. No way to misunderstand that right?

"A question mark? You have a question? Like, about your typing?"

It worked! I nodded and looked at him expectantly.

"Well, Raltses are Psychic/Fairy, right? It says it right here" He took out his pokédex and turned it on. An image of a ralts appeared on the screen above a bunch of text I couldn't read. "It even has a list of fairy moves that the Ralts line can learn."

I… was… what?

Has my entire life been a lie so far?

"Why? Did you not know that you were part Fairy or something?"

Oh, I had said that last part out loud. I gently nodded at her, an act that sent her into a cackle.

"Well, there's a way to find out. I could even help you with it if you want."

"Oh, thanks Milk. Maybe a bit later once we make camp."

"Sure thing, and don't call me milk." She growled that last part. I wondered for a moment if she was serious until she cut off the growl and laughed.

I was totally going to keep calling her Milk.

I spent a good while telling Milk about my life post-caught by Nikki. Of course, I hadn't really gotten 'caught', but Milk refused to refer to it as anything else.

"A blue dog pokémon that can see without using his eyes? Can't say I've ever heard of something like that before."

"Toughest fight I've ever fought." I punched the air. "Still won though, as if there was any other possibility."

"Impressive."

"What about you? You got any interesting stories?"

"Hm," Mawile mumbled to herself for a moment. "Oh I know, want to know about the last time I got in huge trouble around here?"

"Sure."

"So I was wandering around up here a few nights ago. Just minding my business, when I found a cool looking rock sticking out of the ground by the edge. I wanted to take a closer look at it so I tried to pull it from the ground. But the thing was, the rock was kind of bigger than I had expected."

"So what happened when you pulled it out?"

A small blush appeared on her face as she tried to not look anywhere but directly at me.

"So I pulled the rock out and a huge crack suddenly started running from the place where I pulled and down the cliff. The cracks spread throughout most of the cliff and huge rocks started falling off the rock face."

Her face suddenly went from slightly embarrassed to deadly serious.

"And that's when the biggest piece fell off, making a huge hole in the side directly into the cave system. Vorn nearly ripped my other jaws off."

I looked Milk over, looking for anything that could have been called 'other jaws' and found nothing.

"What other jaws?"

"These," She said in a bored tone as she swung her head stalk forward. I jumped a little as I saw giant line appear and split the stalk in half. As it opened, I saw that the white triangles had in fact been teeth, belonging to the biggest set of jaws I had ever seen on anything ever. "Are my other jaws. Surprised you didn't ask about them earlier."

"I just thought it was a head stalk or something."

"Well, you're not wrong. But it's a bit more than that. Us steel types have to actually eat metal to in order to stay healthy. My normal jaws can't exactly chew rocks but these babies can."

We kept talking for a bit longer after that but soon the sun began to set and we all stopped.

"This looks like a good place to set camp." Nikki declared as he set his bag down on the flat stone. The entire area around us looked like it had been flattened somehow into a smooth plain. I tried to not think about whatever could have done so.

Nikki and Laura got to work setting up cam as Milk pulled me aside.

"Okay, so you wanted me to show to how to use fairy moves right?"

"Yeah, I could always use more moves."

"Okay so to start, how do your psychic powers work exactly?"

I went into the deepest explanation I could manage on the psychic energy that flowed through the world, and how I used it to fuel my powers. She kept her attention on me the whole time and even asked a question or two if she needed me to clarify something.

"Okay, so I think I have a good ground to build on when it comes to teaching how to use fairy moves." She said as she held her hand up. "I want you to try something like what you do when you open yourself to the world. Only instead of just opening yourself, I want you to look, I guess deeper would be the right word."

"Deeper?"

"Yeah, deeper. You see there's this place called The Dreaming. It's a world beyond our own, and it's where all of the energy used in fairy type attacks comes from."

"Wow, how have I never heard about this?"

"No idea, my parents were the ones who taught me about The Dreaming and how to use it."

A dark and grim idea crossed my mind.

"Hey is The Dreaming dangerous in any way. Like, can you draw too much in at once or anything like that?"

"Not really. The biggest warning I got was to not venture too deep, but that's really hard to do. You have to have visited The Dreaming for years to get anywhere near the deeper parts."

"Well, that explains it," I muttered to myself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," I said quickly. I didn't think she'd heard me.

But it did make a depressing amount of sense. Why bother teaching me something that can't be taught wrong on purpose. My psychic powers could hurt me if used wrongly and I had been using them wrongly until Warmth taught me.

My Mother was still messing me up even now.

"Okay… then." Milk said sounding like she didn't really think it was okay. "So teaching you how to access The Dreaming. Okay, so the first thing you have to do is try to find it."

She walked me through what I had to do, even giving me chant to think to myself that would apparently help me focus. The goal was to look inside myself for something, a light, a sensation, anything, that could take me to The Dreaming. All I had to do was focus on myself and cut off everything around me and a path would present itself. But only if Nikki hadn't been pulling my leg and I really was a fairy type.

I sat down on the ground and closed my eyes like I did when I accessed the sea of power, but I didn't open myself up to the world like I usually did. Instead, I first focused my breathing, calming my breath into a steady rhythm.

In… out… in… out… repeat the cycle seven times for fourteen breaths. Fourteen are the knights of clover, who guard the gates. With fourteen breaths I gift the gift of life, allowing safe passage. With safe passage, I fear no evil, as my path is clear and of sweet dreams.

By the time I was ten breaths in, I was pretty sure that I was half asleep. By the fourteenth, I was sure of it.

I decided to get up before I fell asleep for real. I didn't think that falling asleep would be helpful in finding my path to the Dreaming.

"Milk I don't think this is… Milk?

I wasn't where I had been when I sat down. Instead of open flat stone with camp in sight, I was all by myself in a misty void. In the distance, I could see what looked like a glowing pink light that oozed a feeling of cheer and glee. I walked towards it, or maybe it floated towards me, or maybe the void around us shifted to bring us closer together. It didn't matter, the light was right in front of me. I touched it with a single finger, and a world unfolded out from it.

In place of the misty void, there was now a misty forest. Glittering lights surrounded me, hanging in the air as though by some unseen force. Up in the sky, the part I could see through the leaves anyway was a full moon that was at least twice the size that it should have been.

Suddenly, I head a giggling sound coming from my right. I turned my head around to see but as soon as I did I heard something move through the forest. The giggling grew stronger. I opened my mouth to ask who was there, but no noise came out. I tried to ask again, but still nothing.

I got on my knees, I felt sick, I felt weak. I sniffled as I felt a single tear go down my face as my nose got stuffy.

Once more I tried to yell, and this time something happened. The sparkling lights started to move around me in a circle. They were slow at first, but as I kept trying to yell they picked up the pace.

I took in one last deep breath as the lights began pouring into me. I looked up, opened my mouth, and a roar of pink light erupted from my mouth and into the sky.

My voice rang out through The Dreaming, carrying all of my rage. The rage I had at myself, at my mother, at the world. Everything I hated went into the roar. All throughout, the waves of pink light kept coming, traveling upwards and disappearing into the night.

I stopped the roar and stumbled to the side as the noise subsided. I could still feel the lights inside of me, not diminished in the slightest. I could feel them shaking a bit in a rhythm the felt weird in me.

Were, were they giggling. They were! They were amused by power.

"Well," I said able to speak once more. "Let's give them something to laugh about."

I roared again, the pink waves erupting out of my mouth. This time I hadn't tilled my head upwards. Instead, I had chosen a target, a tree that had somehow grown its branches in a circle.

The waves hit the target dead on and the lights inside of me cheered and laughed. I did it again, to their growing delight.

I roared again and again until I couldn't anymore. I dropped to the ground, exhausted.

I lifted my arm up and held it the air above me.

"This power," I declared as I closed my hand into a fist, "Is mine!"

I felt a standing ovation from the lights inside me as I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, I was sitting on stone again. Milk was sitting in front of me, looking bored out of her mind. Her face lit up upon noticing that I was awake.

"Hey, you're back. I guess you are a Fairy type after all. How'd it go?" She asked as she inched a bit closer to me.

"Fine, I guess," I told her, not really sure about what just happened. "What was that? At first, I thought I was going to sleep but when I woke up I was somewhere else."

She shot me a bemused smile.

"Brook, it's called The Dreaming. How do you think you were going to get there?"

"I guess that makes sense, but how am I supposed to use it normally. I can't just fall asleep in the middle of a battle."

"You don't." She got up and held her arms together. "You see, now that you've opened a door to The Dreaming inside of yourself, you can access it whenever you want. You can also draw power out from it to use as you wish. In fact, that's how most Fairy attacks work."

"So those lights that were inside of me, I can still call on them?"

"Maybe." She sounded uneasy. "The Dreaming is a pretty chaotic mess of a world with almost zero consistency. As such, most fairy types have radically different views on it. For me, the power comes to me glowing pink stones that dance around me."

She unfolded her arms and held her jaws up in the air. The glowing rocks that she had been talking about appeared around it. She grunted as she swung the jaws, a giant burst of wind erupting from them that was full of the pink rocks.

"What about you, what can you do now?"

I closed my eyes and looked inside myself to where I had felt the lights before.

They were gone, but in their place was what looked like a door made out of plant vines that were floating in place without needing to stick to anything. I coaxed the door open, and the lights danced out to a merry tune only they could hear.

I Waited for a few more to dance in and then tilted my head upwards. I took in a deep breath and let out a roar, just like how I had done in The Dreaming.

I disappointed neither myself nor the lights inside of me. They cheered as my voice rang out throughout the cliffs, and the pink waves shot through the sky.

"Brook!" I heard Nikki yell as I his footsteps got closer. I shut my mouth and the pink waves subsided. Nikki stopped in front of me, his breath raspy from sprinting over. "Was that you?"

I nodded and looked away back towards the sea. I took a deep breath to get ready for another roar. I couldn't help but smile when I noticed Nikki cover his ears out of the corner of my eye. I let loose again, releasing the pink waves.

I closed my mouth as the roar ran its course. Nikki put one of his hands down and used the other to rub his ears.

"Impressive. That was disarming voice right? I told you were a fairy type."

I grinned cheekily as Milk looked impressed. "Nice going Brook."

Nikki told us that dinner was ready and we both ran after him as we went back to camp. After eating, we spent most of the time just chatting. Milk got a chance to meet Doduo and Oddish, and then she met shroomish.

"Go shroomish." Shroomish appeared in a flash of white light and waddled up to Milk.

"Hello there." He tilted his head. "You're new, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too?' She knelt down with her hands on her knees. "My names Vimilky. What about you?"

"I don't really have one," Shroomish explained. "Everyone just calls me Shroomish, but that's what I am, not who I am."

"Do you… want a name?"

Shroomish didn't answer at first, instead waddling a little past Milk to stare at the sea.

"Yes." He finally said. "But not yet. I haven't found it yet. But I know I will, it's out there somewhere, just have to keep wandering until I find it."

Milk walked up to Shroomish and stood next to him.

"I hope you find it. By the way, while we're talking, mind if I ask you a question?"

"Sure, might not have an answer though."

"Brook told me a story about how you two met. How she was the one who caught you in your ball to save you."

"Yeah, I heard."

"How?" She sounded perplexed. Now that I think about it, I never did tell her that…

"You can see and hear what's going on outside the pokéball. It's pretty nice."

"Oh, that's cool. So my question was, how much of that story was…?"

"True, pretty much all of it, from a certain point of view."

"What do you mean, from a certain point of view, either the story was true or it wasn't."

"I mean, events happened as she described but not exactly as she would want you to believe."

"That still doesn't help that much."

Shroomish tilted his head towards me.

"The story was true." He said after a pause.

"Hey, guys!" We all heard Nikki call from near the small fire he and Laura had started. "The food is ready."

We all ran back and ate together, me sitting in between Milk and Shroomish. We spent more time chatting than eating and by the end, I felt like it was safe to say that the tree of us could be called friends.

"So you're going to just sleep on the rocks?"

"Yeah, Steel-type remember? We can sleep comfortably in a surprisingly high number of places."

"Oh, okay. Goodnight then." I told her as I walked over to Nikki's bad and returned to my pokéball. I couldn't wait to talk to her again tomorrow.

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, the Mawile we had met earlier had disappeared. After returning Brook to her pokéball Vimilky bid us goodnight and had chosen to sleep on the ground a few feet away from us.

Brook spent most of the rest of the trip to Dewford Port in stunned silence. I could understand why she had bonded with the fairy/steel type pretty quickly. I couldn't help but smile as I had watched the two of them plus shroomish bond while sitting around camp the night before.

"Come on, cheer up. You'll see her again soon." I knew that it wasn't much, but I had to at least try to cheer her up.

She trilled and crossed her arms as she sat on my shoulder. Even with her head hunched over and her arms covering her face, I could tell she was pouting.

I decided to just let her sulk in peace. She'd come around when she came come around.

"Hey, I can see the Port from here!" I heard Laura yell from up ahead. I jogged up the path, careful to not let Brook fall off, up to the small hill that Laura had been on top of.

From up on the hill, I could see the Port at the end of the Granite Mountains. It was a lot like Petalburg Docks, a collection of large storage buildings next to a pretty busy looking port.

"Let's go! Laura ran down the hill and cheered.

"Hey wait up!" I called as I ran after her. As I ran down the hill, I could have sworn I head the quietest little laugh from my shoulder. Just a tiny one though.

Brook was looking a little better by the time we made it to the outskirts of town. She gave one look of the crowded looking city and decided to stay in her pokéball.

It took us about an hour to find the pokécenter, mostly because it was pretty well hidden among the warehouses. In fact, it looked like a warehouse that had been repurposed once they realized that the Port was getting large enough to justify one.

Once we stepped inside, I realized that yes, this pokécenter was indeed, a repurposed warehouse. The walls were flimsy white sheets of what looked like clay, and the rooms had no roof, instead, you could look up directly into the warehouse roof above.

We turned in our pokémon for a checkup and once we made sure that they were all fine, made our way to our room. It was much simpler than the room we had gotten back in Dewford.

Which, yeah it made sense. The pokécenter in the fancy resort town was better than the one in said the port of said resort town. Didn't make the bed any less uncomfortable.

Well, it wouldn't be an issue anyway. The boat left late in the afternoon. We only got the room to have a place to rest for a while and leave our bags.

"So we got a few hours until boarding." Laura laid on her bed looking like she wasn't having the best time. "What do you want to do?"

"Want to just wander around the docks for a few hours?"

And that's how we found ourselves wandering around the docks around an hour later.

The docks weren't meant for much besides taking and unloading freight and passengers. That is to say, they didn't really have anything else to do. There wasn't even a small park like there had been in Petalburg Port.

"So what now?" Laura twiddled her fingers. "Our boat still won't let us board and we have nothing to do."

"Well, I guess we could…" To tell the truth, I had no idea what we could do. But I wanted to think of something. "Go watch the boats?"

And that's how we found ourselves standing on a small hill overlooking the boats. The walk out here had taken a while, so much so that we had decided to stop by the pokécenter on the way to pick up our bags. The boat was going to pick us up near this spot anyway.

"So what now?"

I looked at the boats as they came into and out of the Docks. It was just Laura and I at the moment. Brook had long since returned to her pokéball while we had been wandering around the Docks.

"I guess we just wait."

I sat down and opened up my bag. I still had something to do, even now. I took out my trusty time waster and got work wasting time.

"You know what, next big city we get to, I'm buying my own book," Laura said as I turned the page. "What are you reading anyway?"

I memorized the page I was one and closed the book and held it up so that she could see the cover.

"It's a guide to the gym leaders of the Hoenn region. All eleven of them. Their famous pokémon, their known strategies, biographical information. That kind of stuff."

"You really read a lot don't you." She looked away for a second. "Wait eleven, I thought there were eight gyms?"

I shrugged.

"Tate and Lisa are co-gym leaders for Mossdeep City, so that's nine. The book also includes recent former gym leaders, in case they decide to come back or something. Wallace retired and left his gym to Juan to become champ. Wattson also retired recently, but that's just because he was old. Apparently, he's out there traveling the world instead. So now his gym is being led by…"

I was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps coming from behind us.

Brook was out of her pokéball before both Laura and I could react. I spun around and caught the sight of Brook running towards a fast approaching…

"Vimilky?"

The small bandage still latched to the Pokémon's face and her reaction to Brook's approach were all the proof we needed that this was the same Mawile yesterday. But… She was covered in new scratches and bruises.

I smiled as Brook ran towards her friend. I hadn't expected them to meet up again so soon, but it was nice that Brook was getting to say goodbye.

* * *

"Milk!" I yelled as I ran towards her.

"Brook!" She yelled back with a smile on her face.

"Milk!" We got closer.

"Brook!" We got even closer.

"Milk!" We had almost met up.

"Brook you," She leaned her arm back mid-run, the smile on her face never leaving her face. "Idiot!"

I shut my eyes just as Milk's fist met my face. I didn't even bother trying to block the hit or anything, I just let myself get knocked to the floor.

"Ow…" I rubbed my cheek. "Milk why?"

"Because none of you idiots can bother looking for someone who mysteriously disappears in the middle of the night!" She yelled, the smile she had on earlier now replaced with an angry sneer.

"Brook, are you alright?" Nikki ran over and knelt next to me. He gave me a hand to help me up and gave Milk a glare. "What did you that for?"

Milk blinked and looked at him.

"So… what did he say?"

Oh right, time to play translator again.

"He asked what you did that for, and you know what? I want to know too."

"Because somehow none of you managed to notice the fact that I got grabbed and carried off in the middle of the night by Vorn's lackeys!"

"Oh, Vorn had lackeys?" I knew that it was a strange point to get stuck up on, but it bothered me none the less.

"Yeah, a team of Sableye and a Kadabra that grabbed me while I was asleep! They hid under an illusion and waited for you all to leave! All you had to do was check the one pile of rocks that wasn't there the night before!"

"Okay, I can see why you're mad." I glanced over at Nikki who was still fuming from the surprise attack that had sent me to the ground. "Just give me a second to fill Nikki in on all of this."

One quick game of physic charades later and Nikki was also looking a little shame-faced.

"I guess it was a bit weird that you would disappear halfway through the night like that." He said as she scratched his cheek. "Sorry for just assuming that you left."

"Yeah, what he said," Laura said, looking away from Milk. Wasn't sure why, but it probably had something to with why her face was bright red.

"You okay Laura?" It looked like Nikki had noticed Laura's crimson cheeks.

"I, well, when we woke up I did notice that there were some rocks that hadn't been there the night before," She explained as both Nikki and I watched, slack-jawed. "I thought it looked weird, but I thought it was just my imagination and didn't say anything."

One translation later, and Milk was glaring at Laura.

"So," I tried changing the subject. "Are you okay, you look like you had a rough time?"

"Vorn's lackeys told him that he saw me with two humans." She grumbled. "He thinks that I've betrayed everyone and decided that I needed a beat down."

"He good you good, I'm surprised he let you get away with how beatup you look."

Now it was Milk's turn to look a bit sheepish. "Well not exactly. You see the thing is…"

A loud and familiar roar from the mountains told the part of the story that Milk was about to get to.

"He didn't let you go, did he?"

"No, no he didn't."

"What are the odds that he comes after you?"

The roar subsided and was replaced by the sound of very angry stomping that felt like it was getting closer.

"I think he's on his way. By the way, he said that after he was done with me, he was coming after your humans before they could go after him."

"Oh."

"So."

"What's up?"

"You think we could lose him in that human place over there?"

We looked at each other in silence before coming to an unspoken agreement. We turned around and ran into the crowded mess of buildings as fast as we could.

"Brook where are you going?" Nikki asked as he started running after me. I flashed both him and Laura the mental image of Vorn standing over all of our crushed bodies.

They quickly started running alongside us.

"Okay so what is Aggron exactly, type wise?" Laura yelled as the stomps got louder.

"Steel and rock, which is pretty problematic for us."

Laura mumbled something under her breath that I couldn't hear. It almost sounded like she was reciting some sort of weird chant.

"Okay, so that's what, fighting, ground, and water? We don't have anything for any of those types." She finally said.

"So what do we do?" Nikki asked as we turned a corner.

"Just run and hope there's a strong enough trainer in town to handle a rampaging giant pokémon."

We ran in silence for a few more turns. Well, near silence, the stomping was still getting closer. In fact, if I had to guess, it sounded like Vorn was almost at the edge of the buildings.

"Is that really our best plan?" Nikki asked sounding a bit guilty.

There was a loud crouching sound that sounded like a metal fist breaking through the wall of a much flimsier metal wall. Probably because a certain Aggron had just punched his way through a building.

Nikki stopped talking and ran faster.

"Nice to see that you agree with me." Laura managed to say with a laugh in spite of our situation.

"Where are you brat?" I heard Vorn yell form a few buildings over. I glanced over at Milk, who had gone pale, and got paler as Vorn kept talking. "I swear when I find you I'm going to rip those jaws from your head and toss you into the sea! I'll rip you to pieces and toss the parts into the deepest parts of the cave! In short, I'll make you regret the day you were born!"

"Man, he is really angry isn't he?" I said as I heard him break through another building. He was really close now.

"And after I deal with you, I'm going to do the same with those humans that you betrayed us to! Them and all their traitorous pokémon!"

"He sounds close." Nikki commentated.

"And angry," Laura added unhelpfully.

A wall in front of us exploded outwards, filling the alley in front of us with dust and shrapnel. We all stopped in place and watched as a lumbering figure emerged from the dust.

"There you are! Now stay still and take your beating like… Hey, get back here!"

We didn't bother staying around to find out what he wanted to do and instead ran back the way we came. I was pretty sure we had passed a fork in the alley a while back.

"There was a fork in the road a while back," Nikki said as he ran. "If we can make it to the boat we should be good."

"Alright then so when we make it to the fork, we just run towards the boat?"

"That's right. Okay, I see it coming on. Get ready to run to the boat."

"What are they saying?" Milk asked me.

"The plan is to get away from Vorn by getting on something called a boat."

"And where is that?"

"Just follow us there. We're going to turn at the cross up ahead."

"Just follow you guys, got it."

"Here we go, the forks right up ahead. Alright… now!"

Our group made a right, running towards the boat and escape.

"Okay, now to make it to the boat. You doing okay Milk? Milk?" I glanced over and noticed that our group was down by two. The only person running with me was Laura, with Milk and Nikki nowhere to be found.

" _Nikki!"_ I yelled out psychically, causing Laura to skip a step.

"Brook what… wrong." Laura paused as she noticed that two of us were missing. We both stopped in place and looked back towards the cross. Milk and Nikki stood across from us, having taken a left of the turn instead.

"Why?" Laura asked quickly.

"This way to the boat," Nikki explained.

"What do I do?" Milk asked.

"I don't know just follow my trainer," I told her as Vorn ran in-between us and roared. He glanced over at both of our groups, before roaring again.

"I'm going to enjoy this brat!" He yelled as he turned towards Nikki and Milk. The two of them, being pretty smart people from what I knew of them, took off running. Vorn growled and chased after them.

Laura stood next to me and watched as the three of them ran off into the distance.

"I hope they're okay." She said with a gulp. "Let's go find that help I was talking about earlier yeah."

All I could do was nod as we ran off towards the boat.

* * *

When I got up this morning, I was not expecting to be running for my life from an out of control Aggron. I guess life was funny that way.

I heard the Aggron growled towards us, making my running partner panic.

"Hey," I asked Vimilky. "Do I even want to know what it is he's saying?"

She shook her head and barked something that I was going to choose to interpret as 'just run'. A sentiment that I had no problem with following. Would have been nice to have Brook around to translate, but at least she and Laura were safe, and probably on their way to the boat.

As we ran, I suddenly realized something. Looking at the mental map in my head, both of the paths could have taken us to the boat. We probably should have decided on a path ahead of time.

It was strange what my brain thought about when I was in mortal peril and why had the Aggron stopped.

I glanced back and saw a frustrated looking Aggron with a foot in the air. Flashbacks to a certain league match I watched as a kid played in my head.

I picked up Vimilky and jumped just as the Aggron hit the ground with his feet.

She barked aggressively until the concrete around us rose up. It folded in on itself, creating a tent-like structure around the spot that we had been standing in.

"Rock Tomb…" I breathed out as I held Vimilky in a reverse hug. "One second later and we would have gotten trapped inside." Vimilky gulped and let out a quitter bark that sounded like she agreed with me. Or maybe I was just hearing what I wanted to hear.

Either way, the sound of an Aggron roaring in rage snapped me out of my distracted state. Having tried to trap us in a rock tomb, it looked like he was just getting ready to charge at us again.

I didn't even bother putting Vimilky down, I just took off running. A good plan considering that it sounded like the Aggron had started running the second after.

I made a left at the next cross, pretty sure that this was the best way to the boat. A loud crashing sound followed by metal breaking coming from behind me told me that the Aggron had figured out one of the basic concepts of geometry. Quickest path between two points? Why, a straight line of course.

Boy, it was a good thing that it was Sunday and all of the buildings in this area were warehouses. Otherwise, this would probably be a much darker situation.

Hopefully, my luck would hold out long enough for me to get to the boat.

Aggron roared again as he burst out from the warehouse covered in a strange pink dust that blew off him as he kept running at us. He was closer to us now, making the turn had cost us a lot of our lead. I had to keep to straight lines as much as possible.

An issue, considering the fact that a T-shaped fork appeared right in front of us.

"Oh great what now?" I looked at the warehouse in front of us and saw a potential solution. Someone had gotten careless and had left the loading dock door slightly open at the bottom. I ran to the opening and set Vimilky down.

"I know you can't understand me," I said as I knelt down and started crawling under the metal screen. "But I hope that you at least get that I want you to follow me under here."

She apparently did because she squeezed through the door right after me.

The warehouse was packed, mostly with wooden crates with something I didn't have to time to read printed on the side. I quickly surveyed the room, finding what I was looking for.

"This way," I called Vimilky as I ran into a narrow crack in between the boxes. I crawled in before making space for Vimilky to cram in next to me. It was perfect, just enough space or both of us to fit but small enough for the Aggron to not find us.

Just in time too, as only a few seconds after we both squeezed in our hiding place, the loading dock got ripped off by a furious looking Aggron.

He huffed as he scanned the room with us. He narrowed his eyes in a glare before letting out a roar. I covered my ears as I felt the sound waves reverb through me. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Vimilky did the same.

He stopped roaring after a few seconds before huffing. He probably meant for the roar to scare us out of our hiding place.

A quick glance past the crates and I could see that he was turning around. I made it, he was leaving. All I had to do was wait for a little bit and I could get out of here and head to the boat.

However just as he took a single foot outside, he turned back towards the warehouse and charged blindly at some of the crates. There was a smashing sound, right before the sound of an explosion.

I popped my head out to see what had happened.

The entire of the far wall of the warehouse was gone. Or at least, most of it was gone, the rest of it was on fire. The Aggron was glaring at its tail, which was covered in soot and slightly on fire. Had he smacked his tail into the boxes, but what had caused the explosion?

I gulped as I actually read what it was that was stored in these boxes.

 _Devon Corporation_

 _Warning: volatile chemicals_

 _Do not expose to heat or flames_

I checked every single box that surrounded us and sure enough, they all had the same writing on it. I had made a terrible mistake.

"We have to go," I told Vimilky as I got up and started running in-between the crates, hoping that the Aggron wouldn't notice us moving until we were well out of blast range.

There was a low growl followed by another loud smacking sound which in turn was followed up by another explosion, this one close enough for me to feel the heat.

Well, at least the explosions were masking the sound of our movements. Vimilky and I cleared the rows of containers easily enough. I made a break for the front door, Vimilky right behind me.

The Aggron must have heard me because I heard him charge straight at us, knocking around all the crates between him and us.

Which, to our misfortune, was most of the crates in the warehouse. A cacophony of explosion erupted behind us as I swung the door open and we leaped out.

I couldn't help but glance back at the warehouse that we had just run out of. It was, of course, on fire. I wasn't sure what else I had expected. Just as I was about to turn back around and run I saw something at the top of the building that made me gulp.

Some of the flames had escaped from the holes in the warehouse caused by the explosion, and they were now spreading to the warehouse next to it.

"Oh, that's bad," I muttered as I saw the start of what could have been a huge blaze that would take out who knows how many buildings.

Welp, time to run from the fires, the Aggron and my questionable amount of responsibility I had towards this whole situation.

We kept running, The Aggron hot on our tail. My feet hit the pavement in a constant beat, never missing a single step. My heart raced, beating like a drum that was being subjected to the most brutal drum solo any living being had ever performed. But even as every part of my body screamed for me to rest, I couldn't afford it. If I did I had a metal giant that would show me exactly why that was such a terrible idea.

A terrified squawking sound rang out as we came out of the narrowish alleys and into a large open space. I came to a sliding stop as I looked back. Vimilky had tripped and was looking at me with a horrified look etched on her face.

The cold logical thing would have been to keep running. So, of course, I never even thought of doing it. Instead, I ran back to try to help Vimilky.

The Aggron roared as he loomed over us and aimed his fist down at us.

If I saw someone else do it, I would have pointed out how meaningless the gesture really was. But in the moment, I acted on instinct. I grabbed Vimilky and threw here as far away from me as I could. Along with her, my bag got thrown too.

A roar from the Aggron knocked me to the ground. He loomed over me, with his fist drawn back and ready to turn me into pulp. I was still on the ground, I was nowhere near fast enough to get back up and run away.

I closed my eyes as I got ready for the void.

So the giant burst of heat that suddenly appeared above me really took me by surprise. I looked up and saw a torrent of fire hitting the Aggron full force.

"Hey kid, get out of here, we'll hold the Aggron back!"

A trio of trainers, all of them with fully evolved fire types, stood across from the Aggron. I scrambled up while the Aggron was still recovering from the blast of fire.

I grabbed my bag, Vimilky nowhere to be found. Hopefully, she had had the chance to get as far away as she needed to. I ran, putting the bag on my back awkwardly as I ran towards the docs to get on my boat out of here.

I made it to the dock maybe ten minutes later. I let out a whistle as I got a closer look at our boat to Rustboro. It was a large, fancy looking cruise liner.

It was S.S. Anne, but it was impressive none the less. Standing on the port near the entrance, I spotted two familiar figures. A lone girl wearing a backpack and a Ralts wearing a dark green bandana.

"Guys!" I called out as I spotted Laura with Brook on her shoulder, both looking worried. They glance upwards and broke out into crazy grins.

"You made it!" Laura said as she ran over to me. Brook didn't even bother waiting, instead choosing to just jump off Laura and boost right into me. Laura stopped right in front of me as Brook tried to hug my face the best she could, which I had to admit, was a lot better than I would have expected.

"Good to see you too Brook," I said as I got her off me and helped her back onto her shoulder perch. She suddenly frowned and looked around. She sent me a mental image that I knew was coming.

A single image, of a particular Mawile with a bandage on her face giving a smug grin.

"We," I forced out, knowing the effect that the truth would have on Brook. Still, I figured it would be crueler to lie to her, only for the truth to come out later. And it would, it always did for stuff like this. "We got separated. She managed to get away but I don't know where she is now."

My heart broke as I saw Brook visually deflate at the news. I brought her into a hug.

"I'm sure she'll be okay," I patted Brook's back while Laura looked on. "We got saved by some really strong trainers. They probably managed to stop that Aggron, so Vimilky is probably just fine."

"I hate to interrupt," Laura said hesitantly, "But the boat's about to leave, we should get on now."

I sighed and followed Laura onto the boat. We found our room and set our stuff down. Brook hoped off my shoulder and laid down on the bed.

Wordlessly, Laura sat down and turned on the TV. It was a region based news show, currently doing a story about some up and coming festival in Fallarbor town.

"I hope Vimilky's okay," Laura commented, not really watching the TV.

I opened my mouth only to be interrupted by a white flash the erupted from out of my bag.

* * *

"I made it!"

"Milk" I yelled as Nikki and Laura both shouted 'Vimilky' in unison.

"How" I ran up and asked her.

"You were right, those pokéballs are a lot comfier then they look." She laughed.

"You didn't…" I gasped as I understood just what she did.

"That's right, I figured that I couldn't exactly go home after something like that. Plus your trainer is far from the terrible nightmare that they say most trainers are, so I figured what the heck…" She shrugged her shoulders. "Might as well join the team."

It started as a low chuckle, and before I knew it I was dying of laughter. Milk couldn't help but join in after a while, With Nikki and Laura laughing too soon after.

"So I take it that she's on the team now Vimilky?" Nikki asked. I got ready to translate when Milk suddenly blinked and freaked out a little.

"Whoa, I can suddenly understand him way more now." She muttered before frantically nodding.

"Oh, you can understand me now. Well, that makes things easier. Welcome to the team Vimilky."

"Nice to see that at least someone can get my name right," she smirks as she shoots me a dirty look.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I pause. "Milk."

"Well nice to see that everything turned out for the best," Laura said as a harsh red glare suddenly came from the TV. We all looked over to what was on screen.

Nikki sucked in air as an aerial view of the Dewford port appeared on the screen. A giant inferno had consumed tons of the warehouses, and it didn't look like it was done spreading.

"We bring you here to a helicopter view of the screen here in Dewford Port, where an out of control pokémon has caused untold damages to the warehouse district. Fortunately, we have yet to have any reported injuries or fatalities, a fact that most are attributing to the blaze occurring on a weekend.

There were reports of a lone trainer running from the pokémon, said to be an Aggron from the nearby Granite caves. Still, it leaves a burning question. Who could have possibly lured a wild pokémon into a populated area like the Docks?"

We all watched as the fires raged on.

"Hey, Laura?" Nikki asked as he collapsed on the bed.

"Yeah?"

"We can never come back to Dewford town ever again."

"Agreed." She clicked the TV off before the two of them walked out to see what distractions the boat had to offer. I followed right after them, my new friend right behind me.


	6. Episode 6

**Episode 6: Battles** **on an overly fancy boat**

* * *

The boat was pretty nice, all things considered. There was a buffet area, a pool, a small concert hall, and a moderately sized arena. All at an affordable price due to traveling trainer discounts. It all looked pretty fun and a great way to kill time until we made landfall. Best of all it all looked super distracting. Which was a good thing when I was trying to forget the fact that I had accidentally caused millions in property damage to the Devon Corporation.

"Nikki," Laura told me as she rolled the food around her plate with her fork. "This buffet is dangerous."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, that having an all-you-eat buffet for breakfast lunch and dinner is a bit much."

"Concerned about your weight going up?"

"Yeah, if I'm not careful, I'll sink the ship on our last day on it."

I pinched the fried mushroom on my plate and took a bite out of it. Whatever spices they had added to this thing had gotten absorbed into the mushroom really well. It gave them a nice tangy and spicy flavor.

"That's not what you're worried about, is it?" I said after swallowing.

"You know me too well. Maybe I should start worrying." Her fork dropped and clattered don the plate. She bowed her head and covered it with her arms. "I mean, are we responsible? It kind of feels like we are but I'm not exactly sure what we could have done to stop it."

"Yeah, I feel the same," I admitted as I set my fork down too. "I'm done, want to go see what's going on the rest of the ship?"

"Yeah, why not?"

We set our plates aside and left the buffet. We wandered the halls of the ship for a while before happening upon a small crowd gathering around the wall of the ship's pokécenter. We glanced at each other and made a silent agreement to get a closer look. As we did so, I noticed that the vast majority of the people in the crowd were trainers. We made our way through the crowd of trainers, getting bits and pieces of conversation as we got closer to the wall.

"Do you think I should…?"

"I think I'll sit this one out…"

"Come on it'll be fun…"

"I'll do my best…"

By the time we made it close enough to the wall to find out the source of the commotion, I already had a good guess. There was only one thing that got a group of trainers this excited. Sure enough, there was a large poster for a small pokémon tournament on the ship on the wall.

"Let's see here," I read from the poster. "Up to three pokémon, double elimination tournament, the winner gets a cash price and a free cruise to the Orange Islands, sign-ups inside."

"Why don't you enter? Even if you don't win, it's still good experience for you. Plus look," Laura pointed to a small box in the corner. "It's an official Hoenn League affiliated tournament."

Affiliated tournaments were one of the weird gimmicks of the Hoenn league that were pretty well known throughout the other regions. The idea was that aside from the big end of year League Tournament, there was a slew of smaller local competitions all around the region. Winning or placing high enough in enough of them could earn someone special perks come time for the League. Such as getting preferential treatment when it came to handing out byes, or in some extreme cases, being allowed to skip the group stages altogether.

As such most trainers made sure to enter any they came across. Some even when out of their way to plan their journey so they could enter as many tournaments as possible.

However, there was a big downside to entering a tournament like this, especially for trainers like me who were aiming to compete in the League for the first time.

Before you could enter any tournament, including the League, you had to register the pokémon that you were going to use. Once you did, those pokémon were added to your trainer profile, which was publicly available. At the moment my profile, were someone to look it up, would only have my name, date of birth, and a Knuckle Badge. If I entered this tournament, then from then on any trainer that I fought in a league battle would know that I had a Ralts, Shroomish, and Mawile.

Which, now that I thought about it, was not exactly the best team type wise was it? I had two pokémon that were weak to fire and another who had recently started using attacks that fire-types resisted. I hadn't meant for things to turn out this way, but it was still weird that the team that I had caught had turned out…

Wait, I hadn't really 'caught' any of them now that I thought about it. Despite battling a wild pokémon and throwing a pokéball at it being the most common way to get new pokémon, I had yet to actually do that.

I decided to ignore that little conundrum for now and instead focused on the matter at hand. Was I going to enter this tournament or not? Would I enter this chance to test my pokémon's skills against power trainers who would also be doing their best to win? Would I enter knowing that my team included a glory hound on a personal quest to become the strongest pokémon in the world? Knowing that if I didn't enter this tournament and give her a chance to fight, she would take it as a personal betrayal?

"Hello, are you the one ask about entering the tournament?" I asked the nurse a few moments later.

"Why yes, I'll need your trainer I.D.?" I handed the I.D. over and watched as she inserted it into a machine. "Okay, I see you have three pokémon on your team. Would you like for me to register them as the three pokémon that you'll be using in the tournament?"

"Yes please."

"Alright then," She typed something into her computer. "You're all set, you can check your status on the PC in your room or pokénav if you have one. Your first match is later today, please be there at least ten minutes ahead of schedule."

"Ten minutes before, got it." The nurse handed me back my I.D. as Laura and I left the pokécenter and headed back to our room.

Once there, I immediately sat down at the PC at booted it up. After waiting a minute or so for it to start up, I accessed my information. I had a few hours to look up my first opponent and come up with a strategy, I wanted to make them count.

I spotted my entry in the boat tournament and clicked it.

"So what info is there about my first opponent?" I muttered as the PC slowly brought up the information. After a few seconds of loading, the full brackets appeared. In the end, it looked like twenty-two people had entered the tournament. Ten of them had gotten a bye, to reduce the number to sixteen come the second round. I was not one of them.

"Looks like you first fight is against someone named… Linguini? There is no way that's his real name."

"Real name or not, I still have to battle him in a few hours," I clicked on his name and braced myself for several seconds of waiting. "So let's find out what he's got. Man, these computers are some real clunkers aren't they?"

"Well, they did come with, oh a Kanto pokémon." She pointed to a small graphic on the screen that showed Linguini's currently registered pokémon. Sure enough, there was only a single slot filled. A lone scyther that he had used in a round robin one pokémon style tournament.

"A bug flying huh," I quickly went through my own team. It did not look good for me.

"Brook's weak against bugs and Shroomish has it even worse." Laura vocalized my thoughts for me. "Poor thing's weak to bug and flying."

"Which just leaves Vimilky. She has a type advantage against a bug flying and some strong moves, but she's also my newest pokémon, she's untested."

"Well then she'll just have to do her best then," Laura smiled at me. "The same goes for you. Don't get too caught up with winning, just think of it as a test of your abilities, do your best, and see how far you can go."

"You're expecting me to lose aren't you?"

"Oh complete and utter defeat for sure. There's probably going to be people entering this thing who are going to have way more badges than you."

I sat back in the chair in silence, not having a come back to her point. Didn't really feel the need for one anyway, it was the truth.

"Well then," Laura said as she walked over to her bag and started digging through her stuff. "I'd say it's been long enough since I ate, I'm going to go try out that pool."

"First your beach obsession and now the pool, you sure you're not a new water-type version of humanity?" I told her as she put all of her stuff in a bundle.

She stuck her tongue out at me playfully before grabbing the bundle and taking her leave.

"Well, time to give the team the head's up." I sighed after she left. I walked over to my bag and worried about a certain Psychic Fairy. I was okay with just trying my hardest and seeing how far I'd go. Brook, the aspiring 'strongest pokémon in the world' on the other hand?

Only time would tell how she would react to defeat.

* * *

I Jumped in the air and cheered at the news. Not only was I getting a chance to flex my psychic power, but I'd get to do it in front of a crowd.

"You look way too happy about this." Milk sat on the bed next to where I had been standing. She looked a bit bored, like Nikki hadn't just given us the best news. To be honest, I hadn't really been paying attention to what had been happening outside my pokéball since I had gotten in last night. Between sleeping, training, and eating, my schedule had gotten pretty full.

"Why wouldn't I be happy, I get another chance to show off how strong I am?" I tried to convince Milk, whose narrowed eyes told me that it hadn't worked. I switched tactics.

"Come on Shroomish, you can't tell me that you're not even the littlest bit hyped for this?"

Shroomish, who had been silent since Nikki had announced the news of the tournament, looked at me calmly.

"I will do my best, it awaits to see if it will be enough to carry me through."

We all looked at him, even Nikki who didn't really understand what he said but still felt the weird atmosphere that got created when Shroomish said stuff like that.

"I'm going to take that as a yes then," Milk gave me a sour look for my interpretation of Shroomish's words.

I gave a small giggle.

"Why are you laughing?" Milk raised an eyebrow.

"Sour Milk," I explained simply.

She groaned as she dug her jaws into the bed and used it to prod herself up.

"I'm going to ignore you said that," She told me as she got to her feet. "I guess I knew what I was getting myself into when I clicked that ball."

I grinned in triumphed.

"Good news?" Nikki asked. I gave him a thumbs up and the mental image of three checkmarks.

"Well then, I guess it's time to go over what you can do Vimilky."

We spent the next few hours going over what Milk could do which turned out to be quite a lot. Not only did she have that fairy move that she showed me before, which Nikki called Fairy wind, she also had two powerful moves called play rough and iron head.

Nikki commented that they were by far the two strongest moves on the entire team and after hearing Milk explain that she once broke through a cave wall with Iron Head, I was quick to believe him. She also had a few other tricks, but did she really need them when she was already that strong?

And just like that, we headed off to the arena for our first match. Shroomish and Milk decided to make the trip in their pokéballs. I, on the other hand, choose to ride on Nikki's shoulder.

The arena was a large room near the top of the boat that was made up of two sections. The first was a lower rectangular area that contained the actual arena. The other section was an upper section above us, where other passengers were gathering to watch the competition.

Nikki checked his pokénav before scanning the crowd.

"There he is," He said as he spotted a weird looking dude. "That's him Brook, our first opponent."

He wasn't what I had been expecting. While I was no expert on human culture in any way shape or form, I had seen enough humans at this point to understand the concept of 'normal'. He had on a normalish set of sky-blue pants, and then it was all downhill from there. Instead of a shirt, he had a strange white cloth that was attached to some sort of bracelet on his wrist, which then flowed down his arm, around his torso, and up his other arm where it was attached to a matching bracelet. The whole thing left giant sections of his arms and upper body exposed, not to mention his stomach that was bare for the world to see. To top it off he wore a matching pair of sky-blue gloves and white cap that was nestled in his slick looking blond hair.

In short, dude was weird, and not the somewhat endearing kind of weird that Shroomish had.

"Why hello there, is there something I can do for you."

Oh no he noticed us. He even sounded a little weird, in a way that I couldn't really describe that well. It was almost like the sounds he was making to form his words weren't the same as everyone else's.

"You're Linguini right?" I leaned back as Nikki walked towards and started talking to the weirdo. "I'm your first opponent Ni…"

"Nikki, there you are." I almost jumped straight off Nikki's shoulder as Laura suddenly appeared behind us. "I'll be cheering… you… on." She trailed off, distracted by the sight of Linguini. Not that I could blame her, he was pretty eye-catching. "I'll be, heading up into the stands. I'll save you a seat too." She told us before departing.

"So you are my first opponent then?" Linguini asked as he put his hand on his chin. "Is this your first tournament?"

"Yeah, it is," Nikki said, sounding metaphorically taken aback. Good thing too because if he had done it latterly I might have been thrown off. "How did you…"

"You have the air of nerves that all first-timers have. Don't worry, it always goes away once the battle actually starts." He explained right before a loud beep came from all around us.

"Would the competing trainers please gather for the first round? I repeat, would all competing trainers gather for the first round."

"Good luck," Nikki said as he held his hand out to Linguini. The strange man smirked and shook it.

"Wishing luck to your opponent, you're either foolish, confident, or kind-hearted. I can't wait to see which one it is Nikki," He let go of my trainer's hand and began walking away. Nikki opened his mouth to say something but got cut off. "Good luck to you as well, ciao."

"I'm never going to ditch this nickname am I?" I cackled as Nikki dragged himself over to where the trainers were gathering, despite the despair weighing him down.

"Okay then, so the battles will have the following format," A fat, jovial looking man in a suit explained to the gathered trainers. I held back a laugh as I gave a good look to the crowd. Even in this group of twenty-two, linguini stood out like a lone tree in a never-ending meadow. "Each match will be a set of three one-on-one battles. Win two out of three battles and you win the match. I trust that everyone here understands that?" Everyone gave a quick nod. "Good, then let's get things underway."

He motioned to an assistant that was off to the side, who brought over a rolling table with a laptop. She opened up the laptop and a weird sideways tree-like thing appeared on the screen.

Nikki's name appeared on the far left along with what I assumed to be twenty-one other names.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed another familiar face, a nondescript guy who was standing a bit away from the crowd. From what Nikki told me, this guy had gotten a bye. He would fight whoever won the match between Nikki and Linguini. I think his name was Dustin or something.

I pouted as the order of the first round was decided. We had the fifth and final match of the round. Nikki and I ascended upwards into the upper section. Despite myself, I actually found watching the first three battles pretty fun. Although it was a little annoying that every Pokémon that came out was one that I didn't recognize. But as fun, as they were, I didn't really see anything that beyond my ability. I could have taken any of them.

The first was a complete stomp by an older looking trainer who went two-zero. The second and third matches were a bit more even. The third in particular was an even brawl that took a while to get through. However after a while, one of the teams managed to barely win.

I settled in as the fourth match started. On both sides of the arena were trainers, both of them looking confident.

"This battle between Silk of Lilycove City and Dwayne, also of Lilycove city, will now begin." The assistant announced from the side of the arena, standing an equal distance from both of the trainers. She had her hand raised in the air, ready to lower it and begin the match.

"Go Linoone,"

"Show them what you got, Staryu,"

Both Pokémon took to the stage across from each other. The first was a beige and brown long bodied pokémon that surveyed the arena the second he popped out. The other was a golden star-like pokémon with a red crystal at the center of their body.

Neither said anything, instead choosing to stand in silence.

"Begin," The assistant brought her hand down and both pokémon were off.

"Linoone, use slash," The Linoone shot off in an impressive burst of speed that left a small cloud of dust in his wake.

"Now protect." The other trainer called out just in time, the Linoone only a few inches away from the star pokémon. The red crystal shone and a red barrier appeared around Staryu. Linoone claws harmlessly slid off the shield. "Now Scald."

The shield dropped and a burst of water shot out from Staryu's top point. Linoone jumped back but still got hit by a small splash. He gritted his teeth as the rest of the water evaporated into steam.

Linoone fell back to the spot where he had started from.

Linoone's trainer smirked as her pokémon rubbed the spot on his shoulder where the water had splashed on him.

"So, want to start taking this seriously Silk?" Staryu's trainer said. Linoone's trainer smiled mischievously.

"So you noticed, just making sure you weren't too rusty. Oh well, now," Her eyes narrowed, "It's time to take this up a notch."

"Staryu, get ready."

"Linoone, use belly drum!"

Nikki threw himself back in his chair as Linoone stood on both of his hind legs. He started to swing his arms towards his stomach, making a loud drum beat with each blow. He winced with pain each time, as his belly got swollen and became shiny red. With one final, beat he let out an enraged roar.

"Let's finish this!" He cried out as he dropped to all fours again and charged at the sea-star.

"Now use Fury Swipes." Linoone jumped and started spinning through the air, turning into a twister of claws, fur and what I assumed to be death.

"Staryu, use rapid spin." Staryu floated off the ground before starting to spin. It only took a split-second for the Staryu to reach a speed that could match Linoone.

The two whirlwinds met, somehow causing a shower of sparks as they both spun against each other. Even as the assistant and a few people in the crowd closest to the battle backed away from the stray sparks, both of the trainers stood perfectly still. Linoone's trainer looked like the calmer of the two, while Staryu's trainer looked a bit tenser.

The shower of sparks ended as one of the two whirlwinds began to slow. The pokémon in question's slowed spinning proved to be a fatal mistake. The other felt the slower spin and pushed harder, spinning even faster until the other gave up altogether. The spinning stopped as one of the two was engulfed in the twister of death.

Staryu fell over, its body covered in what looked like hundreds of tiny slashes. Linoone got back up on its hind legs before letting out a victorious cry.

As his trainer called him back into his pokéball, his gaze scanned the crowd. Our eyes met for a second, and in that second he shot me a vicious smile. I gulped as he dissolved into red light.

I gulped. I wasn't sure why that had scared me so much, but in that second I decided to hide Nikki's pokéball before going to sleep tonight.

The next two battles passed without incident, Linoone's trainer had lost her second battle to what I thought was a cheap move, only to stomp her last fight, winning with a single hit.

And with that done, it was our turn. I noticed Linguini getting up from his own seat in the crowd and making his way down. Nikki did the same and, pushing away my worry about Linoone, I started hyping myself up for the battle.

* * *

So this was it, my first tournament battle ever. As I made my way to the arena below, I couldn't help but notice the small but high-quality cameras that were built into the walls to catch the battle. The idea of my Mom, Dad, and Ali sitting on the couch and watching my battle churned my stomach.

Across the field, Linguini stood aloof and calm. He was a complete contrast to my obvious nerves.

I reached down to my breast pocket and the three pokéballs there. Only two of them were actually full of course, the third's denizen sitting on my shoulder, looking ready for a fight. I knew better than to deny her, but she wasn't going to go first.

The only Pokémon that he had registered was a scyther, so now I had to make a choice. Either I could take the chance that he brings his scyther out first and bring call out Vimilky, or take the chance that he brings out any other pokémon and send out Shroomish.

Either way, I wanted to save Brook for the second match. Her growing arrogance aside, she was still the strongest pokémon on my team.

"The battle between Nicholas of Petalburg City and… Linguini?" She sounded confused, as though she wasn't sure if that was the real name she was supposed to say or not. She took a breath. "Linguini of Mauville city will now begin.

I made my decision.

"Go Vimilky," If I had guessed right, then I would have a good advantage in this fight.

"Go Scyther,"

The only thing keeping me from bursting out into a cheer was the large crowd above me and the cameras watching my every move.

Even if she had been a bit worried about the fight when I had told everyone, Vimilky was now standing confidently with a smile on her face.

And now she was planting her jaw in the ground and using it to lean back with her arms crossed.

Maybe that was a bit too confident. Epically since the scyther looked pretty ticked off the more Vimilky leaned back. They scraped their arm blades together, making the sound of two knives cutting each other.

"Begin," The ref said as she brought her hand down.

"Scyther, get in there and use fury cutter."

"Vimilky, do not let that hit connect. Bat his blade away with your jaw." I tensed up as Vimilky took a step back and swung her jaw. Scyther managed to avoid the improvised attack, but it didn't matter, they hadn't managed to land fury cutter.

Bug attacks were resisted by both of Vimilky's types, and I didn't know any other moves that Scyther could learn that would work well here.

The one exception was fury cutter, a somewhat weak bug attack. At least, that's what it starts out as. With each hit, fury cutter doubled in power. After a few slashes, it would be strong enough to take out Vimilky in one hit.

I had to finish this quickly before Scyther had the chance to build up. Fortunately, Vimilky's swing had left her in a good position to try to do just that.

"Vimilky, now use Iron Head." The deceiver pokémon lowered her head down as her jaw began to glow. She jumped forward, swinging her jaw at Scyther. The bug dodged getting out of the way of the metal jaw. But what he couldn't have known was that Vimilky was pretty good at living up to her name.

While she could use her Jaws for Iron Head, Mawile could also use their actual heads for the move. A fact that Scyther learned painfully as he dodged out of the jaw's way only for Vimilky to get his right in the shoulder.

"A clever trick I'll give you that," Linguini said, sounding genuinely impressed. "But not one that will work on the likes of us twice."

The scyther nodded in agreement.

"Scyther, circle around the Mawile. Stay fast on your feet and try to get in a fury cutter when you get an opening."

Scyther obeyed his trainer, rushing past Vimilky and running in a circle around her. Vimilky raised her jaw up, ready to counter if need be, and I found myself really wishing that she knew iron defense.

Scyther made their move, dashing towards Vimilky with both blades overhead. They swung down, Vimilky just barely managing to intercept with her jaws. Scyther gave us no time to respond, jumping back and going back to running circles around Vimilky.

Scyther made another two laps and then ducked down and dashed at Vimilky with their left arm blade low and close to the ground. They were heading straight for Vimilky from the Mawile's blind spot.

"Behind you," I called out

Vimilky planted the end of her jaw right in the path of the blade. Not only that, but she jumped off the ground and balanced herself on top of her jaws. Scyther's fury cutter glanced harmlessly off Vimilky's steel jaw.

Scyther kept trying to get in fury cutters, and each time Vimilky managing to deflect the blades. However, after three more tries, I noticed something off about Vimilky. Her breathing was getting labored, and whereas before she had managed to block Scyther perfectly, her blocks were starting to get sloppy.

She was getting slower. She was still too new to this, too unused to having to fight for so long. Each fury cutter might have been failing to cut into her flesh, but they were cutting into her energy levels.

It was clear, I had to finish this and finish it soon. I needed a way to have Vimilky hit everything around her. The perfect idea hit me.

"Vimilky, use Fairy Wind all around you."

She grunted as she brought her jaw up, the steel appendage starting to glow pink.

"Scyther, now!" Linguini commanded.

Scyther didn't bother doing any fancy tricks, just gunning for Vimilky with both blades at the ready. Mawile, seeing the danger, swung her jaws with everything she had.

It was almost fast enough. Scyther managed to nick Vimilky's arm just as she swung her jaw. A small explosion of pink wind erupted from Vimilky's jaw and hit Scyther dead on. The bug got knocked away by the wind but managed to unfurl their wings in midair. Scyther's wings buzzed loudly as they use them to recover and land upright.

We got a good hit in, but at the cost of Linguini getting in a fury cutter.

"Time to change things up a bit!" Linguini announced, probably for the sake of the crowd considering the way he was looking at them when he said it. "Scyther, use steel wing."

Wait what? Since when could Scyther learn steel wings?

Scyther utterly failed to spare me any time to understand what was going on, instead stretching out their wings even further than they already were. They started to glow with the same metallic sheen that covered Vimilky when she used Iron Head.

"Vimilky, block it," I yelled out just as Scyther charged forward. They shot past Vimilky, the wings cutting into Vimilky's side.

"Now again," Scyther turned around and came back for another run. Neither Vimilky nor I could do anything as the Mawile got cut again. "Once more."

Scyther turned in the air, doing as their trainer said and making another pass. But there was something a bit weird about the way that the bug was flying. They were slower, and it looked like it was almost on purpose. Almost as though this hit was designed to look easier to block.

"Now Scyther, use fury cutter."

"Vimilky, duck," I said without hesitation. Scyther's wings lost their metallic sheen and instead, the bug had their blades out again. Vimilky leaned back just in time to avoid the cut. Had I told Vimilky to block the wings, it would have left her open to the blades.

A clever trick but one with the potential to backfire and leave one open for punishment. I would know, I was about to do just that.

"Now, use Iron Head." Vimilky's head coated itself in the metal sheen and brought it forward in a brutal looking head-butt that got Scyther right in the chest.

Scyther reeled back from the blow. With the pokémon stunned by the hit, I saw my chance and took it.

"Now finish thing this Vimilky, use play rough."

Vimilky's jaw glowed as bright pink stones began circling around it. She swung, hitting Scyther dead-on.

"Scyther no!" Linguini called out as his pokémon went down and stayed down. He made a frustrated clicking sound as he recalled Scyther.

"The first round goes to Nicholas of Petalburg city." The referee announced.

Now while I could have punched the air and celebrated, I figured it was a bit too early for that. No need to jinx myself now.

Vimilky, on the other hand, had no such problem. She gave a fist pump and an admittedly pretty adorable cheer.

"Vimilky, return," I said as I recalled her in mid-jump.

"You ready to go again?" Linguini asked me as he took out another pokéball. "This time you're going to be facing my most powerful pokémon."

"I guess you can't really don't really have a choice in the matter? Guess I'll do the same."

His eyes narrowed. "Go, Farfetch'd." A brown bird-like pokémon took the field, carrying a… was that a green onion?

"Brook, let's do this." Brook chirped as she jumped and boosted towards the arena. She landed with a quiet thud and gave her opponent a confident smirk.

"Begin!" The ref yelled as she brought her hand down. With that, my second ever official league match started.

* * *

My opponent was a bird wielding a vegetable. I had to say, I expected something a bit grander for the first tournament fight. In fact, I was so confident, that I told her about the whole, expecting something grander, thing.

"You are quick to judge for someone so small," She said as she pointed her vegetable at me. "If you are expecting an easy victory, then I'm afraid that I'll have to disappoint you."

"Brook, use disarming voice."

I reached deep in me and awakened the dancing lights that lived there. I took a deep breath and let out a scream as well as a wave of pink energy.

"Farfetch'd, get out of the way."

"Don't think so," Nikki said with a smirk that I would have mirrored if I didn't have my mouth wide open. The bird leaped to the side as Pink wave arced downwards towards her. To her shock, the energy readjusted its path to hit her from above.

"What? How?" Linguini yelled out in surprise.

"Disarming voice. Works just like swift." While Swift was well known for being the unavoidable attack, it was a bit of an exaggeration. They could be dodged, it was just insanely difficult.

"Then I guess we'll have to take the offensive," Linguini said as Farfetch'd rose to her feet, barely a scratch on her. I grimaced as she spread her feet out and put her vegetable behind her back. Disarming voice always hit but those hits didn't hit that hard. "Farfetch'd, use slash."

Her eyes gleamed as she dashed forward and swung her vegetable at me.

"Brook boost out of the way," I looked back at Nikki like he had a second head. Was he serious?

"It's a freaking vegetable! What's she going to do, make a soup at me?" I chirped in exasperation as I set Nikki the mental image of the vegetable hitting me, breaking off, and then flying off only to land in a soup pot.

"Foolish child." I heard someone say. I turned back to see a green blur come straight at me.

The world exploded in pain as something hit me hard. I felt the air around me as I was thrown back from the impact. I ate dirt as I landed face down.

"Maybe I need to rethink some things," I muttered into the ground before I got back up to my feet. I fully opened myself to the sea of power. "Let's do this again," I announced, my psychic power running on all cylinders.

"Brook, use confusion." I raised my arms and shot out blasts of green-tinted psychic energy.

"Farfetch'd, dodge." The bird's eyes sparkled as she started dancing with her vegetable. I growled as she danced her way past every single one of my shots. She made it halfway through the arena when she made her move.

She stomped the ground and she suddenly turned into a blur again.

I didn't even bother waiting for a command or trying to dodge. I reached in deep and let loose the strongest and widest confusion I could manage. The psychic power was released as a wide, almost umbrella-like green shape. There was a loud smack as the vegetable sword hit the improvised shield. The bird floated in the air, looking annoyed that her sword strike had been stopped.

While the shield dissolved the second after the impact, one second was all that I needed.

"Brook, full power." I smiled as Nikki practically read my mind. Maybe he was starting to get some psychic powers of his own. I called the power and unleashed it all point-blank.

There was an explosion of force that almost sent me flying as well. Almost being the key word here, as I managed to dig my heels in at just the right time. My opponent, on the other hand, was not so lucky.

"Farfetch'd" Linguini called out as his pokémon went flying, and not by her own power. She somehow managed to stab the ground with her vegetable. She grunted as she got to her feet. "Alright let's try this again. Show them a slash attack."

"Brook, don't let Farfetch'd get close to you." I shot another volley of confusions at the bird who once again danced around my attacks. As soon as she was in range to do her slash attack, I stopped the volley. I got ready to do another wide confusion, knowing that it was my best option.

"Brook protect yourself." I let loose my power the second I saw my opponent turn into a blur.

I wasn't too sure about what happened. Once second Farfetch'd was a blur barreling towards me who was about to meet the improvised shield of psychic energy I had gotten ready. The next the confusion was shooting towards empty air, and there was a duck that was somehow smiling with a beak right next to me.

"Keep sharp." She whispered.

"Brook teleport, now!"

Even with time slowed down, the bird's vegetable was still moving fast enough to look like it was moving in normal time. I decided to ignore that little fact, and instead picked a random spot that put me out of her slash range. I willed opened the path between me and the spot. I vanished from where I had been standing and appeared in my chosen location. I gulped as Farfetch'd swung through the spot in the air where my head had been.

"Brook, use disarming voice." I belted out a screech and watched as the pink energy went straight for the bird. As much as I wanted to go for another confusion, the Teleport had left me feeling a bit drained of psychic energy. My reserves were nowhere near enough to go all out with them.

"Farfetch'd, keep moving."

"Brook, use your confusion to try to limit Farfetch'd's movement." I smiled in a way that would have probably worried anyone who knew me. All I had to do was keep the psychic energy I used to a minimum, and I should be able to refill my reserves faster then I used them.

I took aim at the bird as she moved around, trying to dodge the pink energy. I shot a weak confusion to where she was about to go, almost causing her to trip and fall to the ground. She still managed to recover from her trip fast enough to keep dodging the voice, but it brought a smile to my face nonetheless.

I took some more potshots, trying to cut off the bird's movement as much as possible. I noticed Linguini grind his teeth out of the corner of my eye.

"This can't keep going," Linguini said with a scowl. "Farfetch'd, we're not going to avoid the disarming voice. Try to tank the hit with your Leek instead."

The bird stopped moving, dodging my last confusion in the process. She glared back at the wave of pink energy that had kept them on the run. She drew her vegetable and held it out in front of her.

She grunted as she braced herself against the impact, the pink energy colliding with her vegetable. Despite what I would have expected, it was the energy that scattered and broke apart, not the vegetable.

"This I getting annoying," I muttered as the bird stood there with an intense look on her face, her body back in the stance that she had taken at the start of the fight.

But this wasn't the start of the fight. And as much as I wanted to say otherwise, she was in way better shape than me.

Still, I didn't exactly have too many other options, so once again the bird charged at me and once again Nikki had me unload a barrage of weak confusions in the hope that one of them might hit.

Of course, none of them did. Instead, she managed once again to get into slash range. As she turned into a blur I was struck by the sudden thought that I had no idea what she was planning. I didn't want to teleport again. My reserves were nowhere near full enough to do a second one. The last thing I needed was to spend an extended period of time with no psychic powers.

I found myself needing a plan of action, hopefully via Nikki.

"Nikki, if you have an idea now would be a really good time!" I yelled aloud even though I knew he couldn't understand me. I crossed my arms and braced myself for the hit.

"Brook boost upwards."

I uncrossed my arms and aimed downwards. I jumped and boosted into the air, managing to clear Farfetch'd's attack completely.

Okay Nikki, now I was in the air. Now, what were we going to do?

"Wanted to save this for later," Linguini said just loud enough for me and maybe Nikki to hear. "Farfetch'd, chase after that Ralts and use brave bird."

The bird put the vegetable in her mouth as a red aura surrounded her. She spread her wings and jumped at me, the red aura making her look like an incoming meteor.

I got my psychic power ready for the plan that I hoped that Nikki had.

Any second now.

She was getting really close.

I could see the violence in her eyes now.

"Nikki!"

"Brook, Burst now!"

I reached deep in to find that weird power and brought it out as fast as possible. I didn't even have enough time to pool the power in me to full capacity. Instead, I unleashed whatever power I had stored in me right as Farfetch'd was about to strike. A wave of green exploded out of me in all directions, hitting Farfetched and sending her back to the ground.

Looking down, I saw that the fight was almost over, the burst and subsequent landing had done a number on her. As I began falling, I was struck with an idea.

I rolled through the air, repositioning myself to be right over the bird. I stuck my foot down and pointed both of my arms upwards. I yelled as I shot out two psychic shots above me, accelerating me downwards.

"Time to end this!" I yelled as my foot met her back. Despite my low weight and utter lack of physical strength, the speed from the fall and the boost gave me all the force I needed.

I jumped away as my opponent collapsed behind me.

"Farfetch'd is unable to battle, Nicholas of Petalburg city wins."

"We did it Brook!" Nikki cried out.

"And another one goes down." I pumped my fist into the air, letting myself take in the adoring crowd.

Why did I barely hear any cheering?

I glanced upwards, and to my shock, the stands were half empty. The only person who was cheering was Laura.

"Where did everybody go? Those seats were almost full when the fight started."

"This always happens," Farfetch'd said as she struggled to her feet and raise her wing at Linguini. "Ugh, you got me good kid. You might be an overconfident little brat, but you can actually back part of it up. But maybe in the future, you shouldn't be so quick to underestimate your foes."

"Yeah, your right." I found myself admitting. That vegetable to the face had hurt. "So what do you mean that this always happens?"

"Last fight of one of the first rounds. Those who wanted to leave early to do something else did so." She somehow managed to smile despite having a beak. "I want to see how you grow brat, farewell."

She raised her wing again as to signal to her trainer that she had spoken her piece.

"Farfetch'd, return." Her trainer said looking annoyed, but still impressed. He walked across the arena as Nikki started doing the same. I grinned as I boosted off towards my own trainer.

"Nikki we won!" I chirped as I landed on his shoulder. Just to be sure that he got the point I sent him the mental image of us standing in the spotlight.

"Good job Brook." He said as he rubbed the top of my head. I couldn't help but let out a giggle as I put up a token effort to keep him off.

"Looks like you got over your nerves pretty quickly," Linguini said as he crossed the field over to us. He held his hand out for Nikki to shake. "Nice match, I can't wait to see where you from here."

"Thanks," Nikki shook his hand before looking up at the nearly empty stands above us. He must have felt cheated out a crowd too with the way he froze up.

"Oh dear, maybe I spoke too soon." Linguini chuckled as he patted Nikki on the back and walked away. "Ciao."

"Yeah, Ciao," Nikki said as he waved Linguini farewell.

* * *

"I still can't believe it, I won a match. I won an actual pokémon league affiliated match." I said as I opened the door to my room. I had dropped my pokémon off at the pokécenter on the way, wanting to give them the chance to rest before the fight tomorrow.

"Well, you better start believing because your second match is tomorrow afternoon," Laura told me as she entered the room after me. "Oh and congratulations on winning. It only gets harder from here."

I let out a sigh, she was right and I knew it. I told her as much as I sat down at the PC.

"They only give byes to stronger trainers. Doing well in past tournaments or having lots of badges are usually how they judge it." I said aloud, to both myself and Laura. "If they gave Dustin a bye it means that he's probably stronger then both me and Linguini."

"That's right, so that means…" She got cut off as my pokénav started to ring. I picked it up and read the name on the caller I.D.

"It's my mom." Laura gave me an understanding nod and gave me a hand motion as if to say 'go ahead'. She left the room as I accepted the call and brought it up to my ear.

"Oh my Nicholas, I am so proud of you!" Mom almost screamed into the phone before I could even get a single word in. "Your first league tournament match and you not only won, you managed a two-nothing sweep."

My eyes went wild with shock, how did they already know? I had wanted to tell everyone myself before they had a chance to find out.

Oh well, at least it was just Mom. I still had a chance to surprise Dad and Ali.

"Nice work little bro."

"Ali?"

"That's right, I got to watch your match too. You did really well, especially with that Mawile of yours. You showed that Pasta guy who's boss."

Well, that was two family members who managed to find out about the battle. Well, at least there was still dad.

"I'm proud of you Nicholas, we all are."

Oh, come on! All three of them, really?

"Dad, you all saw the match?"

"We sure did," Ali answered for dad. "Did you know that nowadays you can subscribe to trainers? You get alerts and stuff whenever they do stuff like enter tournaments."

"When we saw that you had entered a tournament, we all got so excited." Mom regaled. "You Father even made sure to make it back home early to watch your battle."

"But you're not out of the woods yet little brother." Ali suddenly cut in. She probably took the phone from Mom. "I saw that bracket, you still have four more matches until you win this thing."

"Yeah, I know," I told her. "And to make it worse, I don't know anything about my next opponent."

We chatted on the pokénav for a while longer, most of it spent congratulating me about my win, but also about how things were back home. After about an hour, I told them goodbye and let them carry on with their day.

The room was quiet with just me. I normally liked having company around to talk to, but the silence was nice from time to time too.

I checked the time on my pokénav. My pokémon were almost done resting. I pocketed my pokénav and left the room intent on heading to the pokécenter.

This part of the ship was almost empty at this hour. Probably because everyone was either eating dinner or already in their rooms. I walked to the railing and leaned over it.

The sea was nice tonight. The moon was full, and there was a nice ocean breeze blowing down the side of the ship. The moonlight reflected off the gentle waves, lighting up the scattered stones that peeked out of the water. And through it all was the scent of sea salt, a smell that filled me with nostalgia.

I was thinking back to some memories of going to the beach with my family when I noticed something among the rocks.

It was hard to notice at first, but after a few seconds, I managed to get a closer look. It was some sort of flickering object that was flying around the rocks. Whatever it was, it looked like it was bending light around it to make it transparent, at the cost of a slight distortion effect.

I had to give whatever it was a hand, if I wasn't starring out into that particular part of the sea, I would have never noticed it.

The figure swooped and dived around the rocks, looking like they were trying to fly all around them as fast as possible. I smiled to myself.

"It's almost like they're playing around," I said as the figure probably miscalculated a swoop and ended up crashing right into the water. I watched in concern as the distorted figure came out of the ocean and started to shake a bit like it was trying to get the water off of them. Now that I knew that they were fine, I couldn't help but laugh at the figure's antics.

The figure suddenly froze in midair. I raised an eyebrow as it turned towards me. Had it not noticed that I was watching it?

"Hello there," I said with a wave. "Nice night out isn't it?"

The figure approached me, slowly flying alongside the boat in order to get a better look at me.

"Just who are you?" I couldn't help but ask. It slowly nudged what I'm pretty sure was their head towards me and made a quite trilling sound.

Did it want me to touch them?

I carefully reached out with my arm, making sure not to make any sudden moves.

It had a smooth but somehow feathery texture. It felt weird, but not unpleasant. The distorted figure let out a joyful trill before pulling away. They flew around in a small circle, before flying off with another trilling sound.

"Goodbye," I called out as I waved the distorted figure goodbye. And while I could never be sure, I think I could just barely make out them waving back as they flew off into the distance.

"Well," I said once the distorted figure was completely out of sight. "That was a thing that happened. Wonder what it was. It was probably a pokémon, but it could have been something else. And even then I don't know any pokémon that can go invisible exactly like that."

I checked the time on my pokénav again. I shrugged my shoulders as I put it away and walked down the hall towards the pokécenter.

"I'll guess I never know."

* * *

I sat in my pokéball ready to both watch the fights and take part in my own.

When Nikki had shown up at the pokécenter looking a bit frazzled yesterday, I had assumed the worst. That he had lost his nerve and that we weren't going to fight in the rest of the tournament was a valid possibility.

Of course, it had turned out to be nothing like that if the arena we were standing in right this moment was any indication. Nikki had actually stayed mostly calm throughout the second round's matches. Just like before, we were the last match fight of the day. And as fun, as it had been to watch the seven matches in front of us, there was only one that caught my eye.

In the match right before ours, the trainer with the scary looking Linoone managed a two-nothing win. But her win wasn't what worried me, it was the look her pokémon had given Nikki and I after he won. It was the look of a predator eyeing a tasty and entertaining bit of prey.

I gulped from within my pokéball, even as Nikki managed to completely ignore the look being thrown his way.

But as good as it was that Nikki's weird nerves didn't make him toss in the towel, I was still worried about him. I resolved to ask him what was wrong after we won this fight.

"This battle between Nicholas of Petalburg City and Dustin of Cliffroad town will now begin." The Human that I know knew to call the referee said as she raised her hand in anticipation of the battle. I nervously chuckled from the comfort of my own pokéball as I recalled the quick conversation Nikki and I had had yesterday about the very subject.

Nikki let out a held breath as he grabbed a pokéball off the clip on his chest. Specifically, one that wasn't mine.

We had the plan all figured out. Shroomish was the last pokémon that Nikki had that no one knew about. As such he was an unexpected pick. A useful counter against an opponent that we knew nothing about. The hope was that for the second battle, Dustin would expect Nikki to call me out and be taken by surprise by Milk. I could then show up for the third battle and clean up if needed.

An amazing plan with no way to backfire on me if I had to say so myself. And not just because I had actually helped Nikki come up with it myself. And by helped I meant 'came up with most of it myself and showed it to Kikk via mental images'.

And of course, the fact that the plan also left me in a prime position to swoop in and save the day in our darkest hour was just a coincidence.

"Go, Shroomish."

"Go, Tentacool."

Our weirdo mushroom boy took the field alongside a much stranger pokémon.

They looked like a mostly blue blob with a trio of red shiny orbs on its head and a pair of white beady eyes below that. Shooting out from underneath them was a pair of grayish-brown rope like tentacles.

Tentacles, Tentacool. Guess that was where the name came from. Either way, we had gotten lucky, this Tentacool looked like it was more at home in the water and it probably had the typing to match. Easy picking for a grass-type that was used to fighting on land.

"Shroomish, try to get in close," Nikki commanded as Shroomish ran forwards to get into close range. Dustin looked calm as the grass-type got closer.

"Tentacool, use toxic spikes."

Tentacool brought together both of their tentacles as a small purple ball formed between them. The 'water' type lobbed the ball into the air and it hit the ground right in front of Shroomish.

"Stop!" Nikki yelled out as Shroomish brought himself to a halt right in front of the impact site. I grimaced as the purple orb hit the ground and split into a ton of small spikes that scattered themselves around the battlefield.

None of them managed to hit Shroomish, but maneuvering around the battlefield suddenly got a lot harder for both Shroomish and later, me.

"Going to have to try this from a distance then…" Nikki muttered looking ticked off. "Shroomish, use stun spore!"

"Tentacool, use acid on the spores."

Shroomish shot out a cloud of the golden paralytic spores, only for them to meet the wave of greenish slime in midair. The spores melted in midair, dispersing the golden cloud even as the green slime feel towards Shroomish.

"Oh no." He commented in his usual manner before jumping back to avoid the slime. A bad move judging from the cry of pain he let out as one of his feet landed on a spike.

"That hurt." Shroomish lifted his foot as to avoid putting any weight on it. As he did so a purple shade started to appear on his skin.

Poison? But I thought that Nikki said that Shroomish could not get poisoned?

"But that's impossible." Nikki whispered under his breath. "I'll worry about that later. For now, I need to fix this quick. Shroomish, use a leech seed."

"Affirmative," Shroomish responded as he lowered his head down and shot the seeds at Tentacool. A good idea, especially since the constant healing from the seeds would offset the poison.

So why did Dustin suddenly look like we had just handed the match over to him?

He remained silent as the seeds hit Tentacool and sprouted vines around the pokémon. Shroomish let out a sigh as the seeds and vines started to glow red, expecting to feel a bit better.

So why did he suddenly start screaming?

"Shroomish!"

"Shroomish!"

Nikki and I both cried out in alarm as the purple marks only worsened. How had this happened? The seeds should have healed Shroomish, not hurt him.

"Tentacool has an ability called liquid ooze," Dustin explained in a calm and clinical manner. How he managed that tone with a huge smirk on his face I could worry about later. "Any draining moves like absorb or Leech seed used on Tentacool causes damage, not healing."

In short, Shroomish couldn't use either leech seed or absorb without hurting himself. He also couldn't use stun spore or Tentacool would just melt them. And Tackle was out due to all the spikes scattered around the arena.

And besides that, well, he had nothing. We had no moves that we could make without taking more hits than we would give.

And when you have no winning moves, then your only move is to just stop. No point in putting the poor guy through more of this.

In short, this was a complete and total defeat. A notion that Nikki agreed with me on if the look of defeat on his face was any judge.

"Shroomish return." He said as he recalled Shroomish back into his pokéball for a well-deserved rest.

Okay, so we were down one. As long as Milk got a win, I could still come in and take the win for us. We got unlucky, we ended up against the one pokémon in the world that countered Shroomish perfectly.

"Nicholas has recalled his pokémon and has therefore conceded the first round. Dustin wins."

"Good job Tentacool," Dustin recalled his pokéball, looking confident.

"Okay, so time to try again," Nikki said as he grabbed Milk's pokéball as the plan called for. Everything would work out fine if we followed the plan.

"Right?" I asked no one in particular from the inside of my ball.

"Go Vimilky."

"Go Metang."

Milk took the field, landing right on a spike. She looked a little confused before checking under her feet. She saw the spike and just shrugged her shoulders. Steel type immunities, pretty useful to have in a situation like this.

"I have to say I was expecting to see your Ralts," Dustin said as he eyed Milk. "But I can't fault you for picking a steel type in a situation like this."

"Yeah, I guess." Nikki sounded shaken again. I thought I notice him change a little when Dustin had brought his pokémon out. I wondered why the blue chunk of floating metal didn't look that tough.

Although if my match yesterday had taught me anything, was that a Pokémon's appearance and power could have nothing to do with each other.

"Good luck Milk," I yelled out knowing she couldn't hear me. "Win this one so I can clean up."

"Begin."

"Alright Vimilky hit him with the best you got, play rough!"

"Metang give then the same, meteor mash!"

Both pokémon charged at each other from across the field. Milk brought her jaw up as she ran, pink stones forming on the appendage. Metang on the other hand, pulled their arm back as it started glowing a bright blue.

They both met in the center of the field. The two competing pokémon both swung forward.

Milk barely flinched as the metal fist hit her face, a burst of blue light shining through her. Metang, also barely reacted as Milk's jaw hit them right in the forehead in a shower of pink energy.

The two of them looked at each other in silence, their attacks having crossed each other. Neither looked away, as though the first to do so would be inviting an attack.

"Metang, Meteor mash again."

"Vimilky, Iron Head."

Metang swung with their other arm, a comet of blue and white that hit Milk right in the cheek. She growled as her head started to glow. She dived forward with a brutal looking head-butt. If I hadn't been watching Milk, I would have guessed that someone had lightly tapped Metang with how he moved.

This… this was going to be a long one. Neither one of them could really do that much damage to the other, nor would either of them be the first to give up.

In short, this would be a battle of attrition. The winner here would be the pokémon that could last the longest. And to my horror, both Nikki and I had learned yesterday who that was.

As much as I denied it, I knew how this battle would end. And I was pretty sure that Nikki knew too.

Ten minutes passed. Ten minutes of Metang and Milk hitting each other with blows that barely hurt. Every move in both of their arsenals had been used and every surprise had been sprung. All that was left now was the knock-down brawl that this battle had devolved into.

"Feel like giving up soon?" Metang asked as they punched Milk in the face, my teammate too tired to properly lift her arms up to block. Good thing that the floating hunk of iron was too tired to do any proper moves.

Milk took the punch to the face with a smile.

"I could do this all day." She lied. Her knees were weak and looking ready to buckle.

"No, you can't." The Metang noted calmly.

"Yeah, you're right, did pretty good though?"

"You did okay."

"Metang," Dustin said. "Finish this.

Metang lifted their arm up and brought their arm down on Milk's head. Milk didn't even bother trying to fight it, she went down.

She hit the floor, and we had lost.

* * *

We spent the rest of the cruise in relative peace, but there was a bit of an uneasy air around the team. All four of us had different stances on this.

Vimilky and Shroomish were the best off. Shroomish, as far as I could tell, was utterly calm and okay with the outcome. Vimilky was on a similar note, being a bit miffed over losing but knowing she tried her best.

I tried to tell myself that I had done my best, but the words felt sour in my mouth. I could have trained Vimilky's endurance harder or had realized Shroomish's lack of real ranged options. I did the best I could with what I had, but I could have had more if I had done better.

But for as much I beat myself up about it, I had nothing on Brook. The tiny little Ralts hadn't left her pokéball in almost two days. If it wasn't for the fact that the pokéball automatically supplied the pokémon within with food and other living supplies, I would have been much more worried.

Of course, when it came to eat I still set aside a spot for her if she felt like coming out.

On the third day, she did. None of us said anything, just letting her eat in peace. Placing her last had been her idea, and in doing so she had cost herself her chance to fight.

I walked outside on the last day of the voyage with Brook. I leaned over the railing as Brook stood on both of my shoulders and leaned on my head.

"You blame yourself don't you?"

There was a long pause as I waited for brook to respond, probably with a mental image.

 _"Yes."_

I raised an eyebrow but didn't bring it up. Brook being able to speak telepathically was a huge deal, but maybe now wasn't the best time to talk about that.

"Don't, it was more my fault than anything else."

 _"Still my fault."_

I could see that we were at a stalemate.

"Okay, so how about this. You came up with the plan, but I approved it and I could have done a better job at pulling it off."

 _"Split the blame?"_

"You read my mind." Wait a second. "Hey did you actually read my mind?"

She giggled and I had to catch her before she fell off.

 _"No, no!"_

She said even as she kept laughing. I laughed along with her.

With the laughter out of our system, we looked out over the ocean. I could see the very top of the Rustboro skyline from here.

"There it is Brook, our next stop and where we'll win our next badge."

 _"Let's take it."_

We watched the skyline, ready to move on and go for the next fight.


	7. Episode 7

**Episode 7: A Swamp Showdown of Sizable Stupidity**

* * *

The boat dropped us off at a tiny little town in the northern part of Petalburg woods. We didn't stay there long though, just long enough to buy supplies for the next leg of the trip and then we were off to the north.

Before leaving for Rustboro, I thought about doubling back and heading back to Petalburg. I wasn't giving up or anything, just felt like going home for a little bit to see how everyone was.

I looked southwards, towards my hometown. To make it there I would have to cross through Petalburg woods. Petalburg woods which was the largest, densest and most dangerous forest in all of Hoenn. A harrowing trial that I had been lucky enough to skip due to my gym order choice.

So northwards to Rustboro we went. I'd go home some other time. Plus I doubted that Brook wanted to go back to a place that was close to her old home.

"So I still don't get how you managed to miss one of the biggest cities in the region," I said to Laura as we walked down the trail. Even though we could see the skyline from here, I knew very well that we wouldn't make it by nightfall.

"Honestly? Looking at the city now? I have no idea."

Vimilky chuckled as she walked alongside us before saying something to Brook who was sitting on my shoulder. The not so tiny anymore Ralts, laughed as she started explaining something to Vimilky.

"Telling her about how we met Laura?"

"That's right."

"It's nice that you two can finally talk to each other directly like that," Laura said with a small pout that looked fake. "It's almost enough to make me jealous."

Brook's telepathic powers were still budding. Part of that was that she could only make short sentences. Another part of that was that she could only make the telepathic connection to me. Probably because I was the one person that she had mentally communicated the most.

"Not my fault that I talk to my own pokémon more than you do. In fact, it would be a little weird if you could understand her."

"I guess you have a point… Oh hey, it's the lake."

I spotted the lake right after Laura pointed it out to me.

Cloudy lake was a small little thing just south of Rustboro. You could cross in one of three ways. You could either cross a bridge that cut directly through the lake. You could take a small ferry from one end to the other, or you could just walk around it. Walking around it even gave two options. A short way around on the west side of the lake, and a long way around on the east side.

Most of the length came from a second lake almost right next to Cloudy Lake. The area between the two lakes was a swamp that was protected land. As such anybody who wanted to walk around had to do so around both.

I honestly had no idea which one I was going to pick.

"Hey, guys how do you guys want to cross the…" I glanced down at Vimilky who laughed nervously. She blinked her eyes and gave me the biggest smile she had. In short, she was trying to up her cute the most she could.

I glanced over at Brook. I gave her a vicious smile that Brook mirrored.

"You know what, they say that walking is good for the soul. Let's go the long way around the lake."

Vimilky's cute face evaporated in shock as Brook let out a wild laugh. Laura just gave a neutral smile, probably feeling bad for Vimilky but not being willing to step in on her behalf.

It had been my idea at first. Instead of sitting in her pokéball, Vimilky would walk the rest of the way to Rustboro. Right now Vimilky's biggest problem was that she was simultaneously our most physical fighter and the one with the worst endurance. I knew that, Vimilky knew that, and Brook knew it too.

Also, I think Shroomish knew but didn't really care.

I had been a bit worried that it would be a bit too cruel to make her walk, but I had been assured that it wasn't that bad.

Mostly because Brook had promised that she would also stay out of her ball and tell me the second Vimilky said she couldn't keep going.

It was a good way to help Vimilky build up some stamina, and it would give the two girls some time to chat. A pastime that I had long since learned that both of them loved.

Of course, that didn't mean that Brook and I couldn't have a little bit of fun at Vimilky's expense.

So our little group of four made their way east, towards the long way around.

* * *

"Remind me again why Shroomish isn't doing this?" Milk asked as she trudged alongside us.

"Because he fights from far away and doesn't really need to work on his stamina. Plus he has tiny little legs so there would be no way for him to keep up with us." I paused in order to give the next part a bigger impact. "Also because he didn't feel like it."

"Why are you like this?" She whined. "I thought we were friends."

"We are friends," I said with my friendliest smile. "And friends help friends build up stamina when their lack of it led to them passing out from a hit to the head."

"I think you're being a little too specific there…" She muttered. "Fine, you know what? You move around a lot in fights too. Why don't you walk too?"

"What? Me? Walk when I have a perfectly good shoulder perch?"

She shot me a dirty look. I averted my gaze, even as I could feel the sensation of guilt that Vimilky was trying to dig into me.

"Uhm," Nikki said as he looked at our little back and forth. "What's going on?"

I opened my mind towards him in order to talk to him. I had managed it once before the day that we met Laura but hadn't been able to do it again until the boat ride back to the mainland. I had gotten better at it in the last two days, but I had some issues that I was still working on it.

For example, the connection tended to fail the longer I made the message. I had to keep it as short and sweet as possible.

"She wants me to walk."

Nikki stopped walking and the look on his face put a pit in my stomach. It was a smile, a friendly smile that filled me with dread.

"Nikki, what are you doing?" He brought both of his hands up.

"Nikki, why are you doing this?" He took a hold of me.

"Nikki why?" He put me down on the ground next to Vimilky.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," Vimilky smirked as she stood above me in triumph. I growled at her and tried to smack her with my hand. I knew that her metal body was going to make it hurt, but I didn't care. Not that it mattered, as she dodged out of the way at the last moment. I growled and lunged at her to try again. She laughed as she dodged again.

"Nice try." We both stopped walking as we looked at each other.

She ran first, with me chasing after her a split-second later.

"Get back here!"

"No way!"

"Guys?" I heard Nikki call out from behind me. "This was supposed to be a walk, not a run." He said as he hypocritically started running after us.

"Oh, these guys." I barely heard Laura said as she started running after us too.

* * *

I didn't chase after Brook and Vimilky for very long. Brook may have the enthusiasm but she didn't have the speed to catch Vimilky. She gave up after a few minutes and the two of them came to a truce.

We had made it pretty far when we were suddenly stopped by a voice behind us.

"Stop right there and put your hands in the air."

I glanced over at Laura who shrugged. The voice sounded young, maybe a kid a year or two younger than me. I decided not to take the chance and put my hands up. The rest of our little group followed my lead.

"Now turn around, real slow." I held in a sigh as I followed the voice's direction.

I had been right, on both counts. It had indeed been a kid that looked to be around nine years old. I had also been right to comply anyway if the angry Grovyle next to the kid was any indication.

"You have a lot of nerve, just wandering so close to the scene of the crime. Turn back around and start walking."

And that's how we ended up walking alongside until we reached a small cottage on the side of the road. Honestly speaking, we probably could have gotten away from the kid and his pokémon easily enough. He was too young to have his own pokémon so that Grovyle was probably a family member's. Which meant that he might not exactly bring out the Pokémon's best in the event of a fight.

But I would rather deal with this now then run and have to deal with a bigger issue later on. This kid was pretty sure we had done some sort of crime, so best to clear our names and be done with it.

The kid walked up to the Cottage and knocked on the door, making sure to keep his eyes on us.

"Who is it?" A voice from inside the cottage said sounded like a girl, maybe a few years older than me, maybe older than Laura.

"It's me Sis. I caught the guys who've been robbing the grove." He said, sounding proud of himself.

"You what!" There was the sound of loud crashing from the inside of the cottage as someone ran through the cottage. A girl who was indeed older then Laura kicked the door wide open. She glanced at us looking pretty mad.

"Hi?" I told her in a relaxed voice.

She took in a deep breath and turned to her brother.

"Before I do anything, can I ask you three questions?"

"Sure," The brother sounded a bit worried.

"First did you see them steal the berries from the grove?"

"Well no but…"

"Second question," She loudly cut him off before he could say anything more. "Do you have any evidence at all that these are the people that stole from our land?"

"No, but you see…"

"Last and final question," She cut him off again, even louder this time. "Exactly why do you think that these people stole from us?"

The brother looked around, suddenly looking worried out of his mind.

"Well they were walking the long path around the lakes and No one really takes that path so I figured that the only reason they would do so was if they were the thieves…"

It was almost as though the brother realized how flimsy his argument was while explaining it. Like he needed to hear it said out loud to realize how dumb it sounded.

"Rico," The sister said in a calm yet terrifying voice.

"Yeah, Sis?" The poor bother looked ready to piss his pants at this point.

"Run."

The Brother ran, with his Sister chasing right behind. He barely had time to get away, as his sister caught up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"What," She said as she stopped him in his tracks, arched her back and suplexed her brother. "Where you thinking!"

"That looked like it hurt," Laura commented unhelpfully.

"Yeah, it did, didn't it?" I added just as unhelpfully.

The sister wiped the dust off herself as she walked over to us. Her Brother laid down on the ground behind her.

"I am so sorry for my brother's behavior. My name's Rina. My family is in charge of caretaking the Treecko grove here."

"Well, that explains some things," I said as we all put our arms down. Brook, in particular, rubbed her shoulders as though they were sore. Having a Treecko Grove here would explain why it was protected land. "My name's Nikki, this here is Laura," I said without thinking. I tried to open my mouth to correct myself but was cut off by Laura.

"Treecko grove?" Laura asked, reminding me once again that she was not a Hoenn native.

"If you want, I can tell you more inside." She said as she motioned towards the door that she had kicked open earlier.

We followed her in as The Grovyle picked up the Brother and carried him after us.

"Treecko's one of the traditional Hoenn region starters," I explained to her as we sat at the table. Brook and Vimilky sat to the side, eating some biscuits that Rina had given us. "Since Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip are somewhat rare, most of them are raised in special, protected locations. For example, a grove full of Treecko."

"So it's the same as a Bulbasaur forest or Squirtle cove then?"

"That's right," Rina said happily as she bought over some tea. She set the tray down before taking a more solemn expression. "But recently we've been having some issues. We think that someone's trying to steal from the grove."

"Who'd be crazy enough to try and steal a Treecko?"

"That's the thing, they're not. The only thing going missing are berries and an occasional sapling. In fact, we're not even completely sure that someone is robbing us. Our parents left about a day ago to talk to the police up in Rustboro about it."

"That's weird," I told her as I served myself some tea. I let it cool for a moment before taking a sip. "Who breaks into protected land and steals something other than the thing that's being protected? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Do, do you not want any sugar or something for your tea?" Rina held up a small pot filled with some white cubed that were probably said sugar.

"Sugar? Why would anyone add sugar to tea?" I said as I took another sip of my glorious sugarless tea.

"Two sugars please," Laura said softly as she nudged her tea towards Rina who proceeded to ruin her tea. Oh well if they wanted to deny themselves, it was none of my problem.

As I took another sip I noticed Brook looking up at me with a look of disbelief on her face. She had her biscuit down, forgotten in her confusion.

"Something wrong?" I said knowing exactly what was wrong.

 _"You, no sugar, what?"_

"Oh no you're not going crazy," I said with a chuckle. "You're right, I love sweet stuff. I put sugary stuff on anything and everything, except for tea. Tea is special and is the only thing in the world that is made worse by sugar."

 _"Don't get it, not sure I want to get it,"_

"Hey, that was pretty long. You're getting the hang of that."

"I have to say, it's not often that I see a non-psychic trainer talk to their pokémon like that," Rina commented as she took a seat as well.

We spent some time just chatting, mostly over what it was like to help run a Treecko grove. Rico woke up at one point and instead of staying to hang out, went up to his room to rest his head.

In his defense, he did get suplexed into the ground.

It was about an hour later when an alarm rang out from a bell on the wall.

Rina smacked the table with her hands and shot out of her chair. "Someone's in the Grove!" She yelled out as I heard her brother come rushing down the stairs. He emerged from upstairs with the Grovyle in tow. They all ran out the door, and not really knowing what else to do, I recalled Brook and Vimilky and started to run after them.

The way to the grove was a dirt path that led us into the small wetlands in between the lakes. As we got closer and closer to the grove, the swampier the ground underneath us got, until finally the earth underneath us was more water than earth.

At the end of it all was a raised piece of dry earth in the shape of a circle. Surrounding the circle was a ring of bushes and inside of that was the grove.

* * *

Nikki let me back out once we made it to the Grove.

"Over here!" I heard a voice call us from above us. I glanced up and saw a Treecko in one of the tree branches. He was pointing down to some bushes in the distance that was just past the Grove.

The rest of the humans noticed her too and were now looking at the same bushes.

"We know you're there. Come out of the bushes and give up," Rina declared as Grovyle took a position in front of her. I guess the pokémon really wasn't her brother's.

There was a small moment of quiet before we heard some muttering coming from the bushes.

"Should we come out?"

"Maybe not, I don't want to risk it. If we just stay here long enough, they might think no one's here and leave."

Did… did they think we couldn't hear them? I mean yeah they were whispering, but whispering only worked when there was some sort of other noise to mask it. And unfortunately for them, the grove was near silent beside them.

"We said," Rico walked closer to the bush. "Come out, we know you're there morons."

"Did that kid just call us morons?" The whispering started again.  
"We can't let him get away with that."

"Yeah if we let him get away with it, there's no way that anyone will take us seriously.

"Okay so on three, we jump out and take them out."

"Got it, on three."

"Okay, so one, two…"

"Wait."

"What?"

"When you say on three, so you mean one, two, three and then go, or one, two, and then go on three."

"One, two, and then go on three, duh. Who the heck says three and then goes."

"Just wanted to make sure, jeez. Don't have to bite my head off."

The most amazing part of this whole exchange wasn't even that they were still talking even though we could all hear them. The most amazing part was that their conversation was so dumb that everyone here was too stunned to do anything.

"Okay so get ready. One, two…"

Well, everyone but me of course.

I took aim at the bush as they counted and fired off a confusion. The resulting blast knocked the bush out of the way, revealing our two thieves.

"Brook!" Nikki yelled at me for some reason.

 _"What? We can see them now."_

"You can't just blast at random… Team Neo-Aqua!" He yelled out as the dust cleared away to reveal a pair of girls coughing like mad and wearing blue and white uniforms that reminded me of those idiots that had tried to take Shroomish. One of them was holding a small sapling while the other one had a basket that looked like it was filled with berries.

They were also both completely identical in appearance. Same face, same short brown hair and even the same gold earring on their right ear.

"Wait Neo-Aqua!" Rina cried out in fear. Man, these original Team Aqua guys must have been terrifying with how everyone reacted to their shameless copycats.

"That's right we are…" Whatever she was about to say was cut off as she started coughing again.

"Were the…" The other one tried to say before starting to cough as well.

"Yeah from what we can tell," Nikki told Rina. "Team Neo-Aqua is nowhere near as competent as the original. I wouldn't worry that much about them."

"Did you have to order your Ralts to attack us you psycho?" One of the grunts yelled at Nikki.

"Actually she did that on her own, sorry." He said, actually sounding apologetic.

I kicked the side of Nikki's check.

 _"Nikki, don't apologize, Criminals!"_

"Oh, that's right." He pointed at the two grunts. "Explain what you're doing here?"

"Ha, do you really think we'll tell you about our evil plan to steal the berries and saplings of the Treecko Grove? You'll get nothing out of us."

"Didn't she just…" Rina kicked her brother before he could keep talking. I saw a small twinkle in her eye before she suddenly made a terrified face.

"Oh, no Team Neo-Aqua? Whatever shall we do? We're powerless to stop their plan."

"That's right you can't do anything to stop us from…"

"Stop talking you idiot, you're about to give away the plan."

"Well, there goes that plan," Rina said, kicking the dirt.

"Let's breakthrough," One of the twins said as she took out a pokéball.

"You got it Sis." The other one said as she also took out a pokéball.

"Go, Chinchou!" They both said in unison as two blue vaguely fish looking pokémon that each had a pair of yellow antenna things.

"Go Shroomish."

"Oddish, Doduo, get out here."

"Grovyle you know what to do."

I jumped off Nikki's shoulder and took my own place alongside everyone else, making five.

The Chinchou suddenly start looking worried and for good reason.

"Hey, Sis?" One of the grunts said as she shook her sister's shoulder.

"Yeah Sis?"

"I think we're outnumbered here."

The two recalled the Chinchou and took off running.

"Hey get back here!" Rico yelled out as the two grunts ran. "Grovyle, use bullet seed."

The silent grass-type ran forward and opened his mouth. A barrage of glowing green seeds shot out from his mouth, just barely missing the two grunts as they ran out of view.

"Looks like they got away, too bad, I wanted a chance to kick them around the swamp a bit." I jokingly pouted, trying to get a smile out of the Grovyle. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see if it had worked and saw something interesting.

While Grovyle wasn't smiling, he was looking down at Shroomish who was staring back.

"Hey Shroomish, what's up?" I said as I walked up to both of them.

"Those seeds…" he said to Grovyle. "Teach me how to do those."

A flash of memories from the boat ran through my head. Shroomish had lost due to not having a good ranged option and an attack like that 'bullet seed' would easily fit the bill.

The two stared at each other for a while before I decided to just walk over to our trainers and take the direct route.

"Hey Brook, what up?"

 _"Shroomish want to learn bullet seed,"_

"And he wants Grovyle to teach him?"

I nodded in confirmation before using both of my arms to gesture to the two grass-types that were still staring at each other.

"What's going on?" Rina asked, looking at the two grass types in concern. Nikki explained what I had told him and how Shroomish had lost his last battle due to not having a move like Bullet Seed. By the end of it, Rina looked contemplative.

"I guess I Grovyle and I can teach your Shroomish bullet seed. I mean it's only fair after helping us with those two Neo-Aqua girls." She rubbed the back of her head. "Team Neo-Aqua, jeez. We got rid of those idiots five years ago and now they just pop back up but younger. What's the world coming to?" She let out a laugh.

"Hey, I don't suppose that theirs's a Team Neo-Magma running around too?"

Nikki silence told her all she needed to know.

* * *

After everything was said and done, we had a plan. Rina had contacted her parents on her pokénav and had informed them of the situation. It was some pretty good timing on her part, as she managed to do just as her parents were talking to the police in Rustboro.

Now that they had confirmation that someone really was trying to rob from the protected land. They were on their way back with some cops. In the meantime, we were going to stick around in the grove, in case Team Neo-Aqua came back. We even all had our pokémon out for good measure.

We were also taking the chance to teach Shroomish how to use Bullet Seed.

"Okay, so the attack works by shooting out seeds that have been charged with the Pokémon's energy. Shroomish have a bit of a head start when it comes to Bullet Seed. After all, they already have the ability to shoot out seeds. So instead of having to learn an entirely new way to attack, it's more like learning a new way to use an old technique." Rina explained with Grovyle at her side. She motioned towards the tree and Grovyle's eyes narrowed.

He opened his mouth and a burst of yellow seeds, each one crackling with golden energy. They sailed through the air towards a small tree growing out of the swamp. It had ended up as our agreed-upon target. It was dead, and there was no harm in damaging it. The seeds contacted the tree and each exploded into a small burst of golden energy. The tree was still standing by the time he was done, but there was now a circle of scorched wood around where the shots had clustered.

"Makes sense." I looked down at Shroomish. "You got it Shroomish?" He nodded and lowered his head at the target tree.

Shroomish took aim, or he did his best at least. It was pretty hard to aim when you were firing out of the top of your head. We didn't have this problem with stun spore or leech seed due to their lower ranges.

There was a small burst of wind and light from the top of Shroomish's head. An orange seed shot through the air, neither as fast nor with as much golden energy as Grovyle's seeds, and nowhere near as many either. Instead of a speedy barrage, Shroomish shot a few seeds, each one at a time.

Most of the shots missed the tree and the few that did didn't leave that much of a mark.

It wasn't much, but it was a ranged option when I had none.

"Okay Shroomish, let's try that again."

We spent a good while practicing Bullet Seed. I tried to not overdo it, we still had Team Neo-Aqua to worry about. But at the relaxed pace we were going, Shroomish still had plenty of energy when we heard some rustling from some nearby bushes.

Everyone was instantly alert, all our eyes on the bush, waiting for whoever came out.

The bush parted, revealing a trio of familiar faces. Flanking the center figure were the two twins that we met earlier. And standing in the center, short and proud was…

"Carol!" Laura and I yelled out as the second in command of Team Neo-Aqua gave us an irritated look.

"If it isn't the Ralts boy and, is that our Shroomish?"

I glanced down at Shroomish who looked like he was far too done with this whole situation. Considering how we met, I wasn't surprised.

"No, I don't think he is," I said, an idea forming in my head.

"Yeah he is, that's our Shroomish, the one you took from us!"

"No, he's not."

"What do you have two Shroomishes?"

"No, I just have the one, this one right here." I pointed down at Shroomish who looked ready to open fire on Carol with Bullet Seed.

"So he is ours, you big liar!" She yelled, now looking visibly angry at me. Good, it meant my plan was working.

"No, he's not your Shroomish," I said as I gave the response I planned at the start of the conversation. I gave her a gentle smile and said, "He's my Shroomish."

Carol screamed in rage as the Twins stepped between me and the shorter girl.

"Hey, how dare you mess with Lieutenant Leader Carol you jerk?" Said one.

"You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us." Said the other.

"Lieutenant Leader?" I whispered to Rina, "I thought Team Aqua had Admins."

"New organization, new titles and positions." She shrugged. "Makes as much sense as making a Team Neo-aqua in the first place."

Carol took a deep breath and calmed down. Well at least somewhat calm. She still looked angry, but more 'lightly miffed' instead of 'rip your head off' levels of anger.

"Why don't you just give up and let us collect the berries and plants we need. It's not like you can stop us." She said as she walked in front of the twins.

And there it was, their grand plan was to break into a protected area, one that protected rare pokémon, all to steal some plants. It made no sense, none at all. So I did something that I wasn't expecting to work, I asked.

"What does Team Neo-Aqua want with those berries and saplings anyway?" Carol let out a snorty laugh at my question.

"I guess I might as we let you idiots in on my plan." I had, to say, I was not expecting that to work. "After all, it's not like you can stop me." She said as she got an impassioned look in her eye. "Look around you, what do you see?"

We all glanced around, trying to think of what she could possibly be talking about.

"The swamp surrounding the Grove?" I said as a wild guess. Hopefully, a wrong answer would get the conversation moving.

"That's exactly right Ralts Boy. You're pretty smart aren't you?"

She looked so happy that I didn't have the heart to tell her that I guessed.

"That's right. The plant life around here has soaked water into the ground, turning the land between the lakes into a swamp."

Wait a second…

"This soaking of the land will be a useful tool in Team Neo-Aqua's quest to expand the sea and free our leaders."

Wait just a second…

"And for our opening act, we'll take the plant life from this swamp and plant it all in the earth between Rustboro and the sea to its west. The plants will turn the land into a swamp, soaking the ground under the city and either sinking the city, or better yet, causing the land itself to crumble and collapse into the sea, taking the city with it."

Wait just a freaking second…

"With Rustboro gone, the police will have no choice but to listen to our demands. After all, if they don't we'll threaten to do it again to another city."

The twin grunts both clapped, an identical look of admiration and devotion on both of their faces.

"Bravo Lieutenant Leader Carol." One said.

"Yes, bravo. Look they're all stunned by your genius plan."

Honestly, I was pretty sure that we were all stunned by the amount of stupid we had just heard.

"Hey what's stupid about my plan? My plan's not stupid, you're stupid."

Oh, I must have said that last part out loud.

"There is so much wrong with that plan that my brain hurts." Rina rubbed her temples.

"Carol," I thought for a second about what I was going to say to her. "Do you think that planting things found in a swamp will turn the area into a swamp?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, how else would you get swamps?" She said still sounding convinced of her own idiocy.

"You do realize that even if your plan worked, it would take years for the plants to grow and even more years for the ground underneath to turn into a swamp," Laura said with a deadpan expression.

"Plus even if you collapsed Rustboro, the police wouldn't cave to your demands, they'd make you priority number one and hunt you down with everything they had," Rina added.

"That's not even talking about the horde of trainers from Rustboro who'd never stop hunting after you guys." I chimed in with my own two cents.

"And we haven't even brought up the biggest problem with your entire plan," Rico added in, looking by far the least impressed out of all of us.

With every flaw in her plan that we pointed out, Carol looked more and more upset. Not knowing or maybe not caring, Rico kept going. "But the dumbest part of your plan has to be that…" He looked at the rest of us and somehow we all knew what to say.

"Planting these won't make a swamp anyway!" We all yelled at them at once.

"Well, what do you all know?" Carol yelled out, red-faced and looking like she almost wanted to cry. I would have felt bad if it wasn't for the fact that if we all suddenly started living in a world where her plan could work, it would probably kill almost everyone in Rustboro. "I'll take you all on and then you'll see my plan will work."

She took out a pair of pokéballs from her hips and slammed down both down on the ground. Alongside the Poochyena from before, it looked like she had added a Psyduck to her line up.

"We'll back you up boss!" The twin grunts yelled out as they both called out their Chinchou.

"Everyone get ready, here they come!" Rina said as her Grovyle broke out into a smile for the first time since I had seen him.

The rest of our pokémon took their places in front of us. I noticed Brook eyes starting to glow green, letting me know that she was ready to go.

On an unspoken command, our pokémon raced towards the edge of the grove where the solid ground met the swamp.

* * *

The first smile I see out of the big lizard and it's from a fight. Well it's not like I couldn't understand it, fighting was pretty fun. Especially when you got deliver a beat down on a group of pokémon dumb enough to follow Team Neo-Aqua.

We had them slightly outnumbered five to four, so I was expecting the battle to go somewhat smoothly. We all split up, meeting the four approaching pokémon head on. Grovyle went after one of the Chinchou, Doduo went after the other one, Oddish looked eyes with the Poochyena, which left Shroomish and me to deal with the Psyduck.

"You ready to do this Shroomish?" I said as I ran forward. My Grass-type teammate ran alongside me, keeping up easily.

He didn't respond, but the look of determination told me all that I needed to know.

"Brook, take the offensive. Shroomish, stay back and support." I understood Nikki perfectly. Once I made it to the edge of the clearing I boosted up into the air. I boosted a second time as I started losing speed, leaving me right above the duck. I took aim with my arms, anticipating Nikki's next command.

"Brook, use confusion!" I opened fire, sending a blast of green psychic energy towards Psyduck.

"Psyduck, use your own confusion," Carol yelled as psyduck's eyes glowed blue. A blue wave of psychic energy erupted from the duck's head. The two waves collided in the air, and it didn't go well for Psyduck.

The blue wave evaporated, blunting some of my power. It still went through, but it was weakened. The green wave hit Psyduck right on her head.

"Shroomish, use leech seed" I boosted in midair again, dodging out of the way just in case. The seeds flew through the air towards Psyduck, who was looking down at the watery ground she was standing on. I landed on a branch of a tree growing out of the water just in time to watch Carol scream her head off.

"Psyduck, use water pulse," Carol yelled frantically as Psyduck's head snapped upward. She opened her mouth as a ring of water blasted out, knocking the seeds out of the way and heading right at Shroomish.

"Shroomish, dodge." He jumped out of the way of the attack. The ring of water hit the spot where Shroomish had been standing. The ring burst on the ground, splashing water everywhere. To my slight amusement, everywhere included on the trainers standing nearby.

"Oh come on really?" Nikki complained. "Brook, use disarming voice."

I held back a chuckle as unleashed a wave of pink energy at Psyduck. The lights inside me gave a hesitant laugh as Psyduck didn't even try to avoid the attack. It was almost as though they were disappointed by the lack of a chase.

"Shroomish, use tackle and then absorb," Nikki said calmly as Shroomish ran forward, hitting Psyduck with his head. She winced back but Shroomish followed through and started draining her.

"Psyduck, knock them away!" Carol yelled, her attention being split between this fight and the one her Poochyena was having with Oddish.

And while I didn't want to split my own attention too much, it seemed to be going well from the little I could see of it. Poochyena was asleep and Oddish was standing on top of the accursed dark-type while glowing a rich green.

Psyduck tried her best to push Shroomish away, but all she really managed was to get Shroomish to take a step back.

 _"Finish this?"_ I asked Nikki over our psychic link.

"Finish this." He confirmed.

I grinned as I boosted of the branch and placed myself overhead Psyduck. I made sure to put enough power in that last one to leave me in the air for a while. Enough time to collect as much physic energy as I could.

"Shroomish," I yelled at him from midair. "Get out of the way!" He jumped back with no hesitation as I brought both arms down and unleashed the strongest confusion I could manage. The torrent of green psychic energy cascaded over Psyduck, who just closed her eyes and let herself get enveloped.

By the time it was over, Psyduck was flat on her back, out cold. Her large belly also made a good landing spot as I came down. She let out a pained whine as my feet dug in on impact.

"A little cruel don't you think?" Shroomish waddled up and asked me.

"Nah," I responded back. "She had it coming when she started listening to that sad sack of dumb over there," I pointed over at Carol who was looking at me in shock. Despite my better judgment, I stuck my tongue out at her, taunting her even further. "Plus there's no way I'm getting any of that nasty swamp water on me," I added after finishing my taunt.

"Psyduck," She grabbed Psyduck's pokéball to call her back. The pokémon that I was currently standing on to avoid the swamp. "Return."

Psyduck started to fade away beneath my feet, leaving me without a stable platform. With so little time and so little to push off of, I made a hard choice.

"Sorry Shroomish," I said as jumped off the mass of red light that had been Psyduck. I landed on top of the poor mushroom, guilt making me feel heavier than I really was.

"Brook!" I winced as I heard Nikki's shocked voice. Not wanting to make things worse, I jumped again as soon as I could. I had a better position to jump off from this time, I got enough airtime to boost towards another branch.

"I'm sorry. I'll make this up to you later," I begged as I boosted away.

I landed on the branch, trying not to think about the fact that I had just used my teammate as a platform. I wanted to think about anything else. I knew, how were the other fights going?

Oddish had managed to take down Poochyena easily enough, the dark-type on the ground and, if Carol's face was any hint, about to be recalled. Carol took out a pokéball and recalled Poochyena, taking her out of the fight. As for how the fights with the twins were going on the other hand…

Both Chinchou were running circles around their opponents. The one fighting Grovyle was zipping around the water and taking the occasional potshot with a rainbow-colored beam. Grovyle was being forced on the defensive, constantly dodging and unable to either get in close or take aim for bullet seed.

Doduo was having just as rough a time. The Chinchou had gone all out with his electric attacks, blasts of lightning constantly on Doduo's tail. He had to jump from branch to branch, constantly moving so that he wouldn't get fried.

I looked between the two, trying to decide which one to help. Something that I took far too long to do.

At almost the exact same moment, both Chinchou landed devastating attacks. Doduo stumbled and got hit by a lightning strike. He screeched and hit the water, twitching as he tried to move. Grovyle got hit by the rainbow beam and yelled out in pain. He went down and Chinchou unloaded, constantly hitting him until he passed out.

Laura and Rina were quick to recall both of their pokémon, leaving the field at three on our side and two on theirs.

Oddish and Shroomish ran over to my branch perch as both Chinchou stood in front of us. I tried to not look too closely at Shroomish, and I felt as though he was doing the same.

"I have to say Carol, shouldn't you be stronger than your subordinates?" Nikki asked as the so-called Lieutenant Leader took a step back.

"That's well…"

"She doesn't have to answer to you!" The first twin yelled out.

"Yeah, we'll follow the Lieutenant through anything." The other one said as she punched the air towards our trainers.

"You guys…" Carol said, looking touched and on the verge of tearing up.

"Who cares that she's only a halfway decent battler with a tendency of getting in over her head!"

"Or that she's actually not that good at leading us in operations."

"You guys…" Carol said, sounding much less touched this time around.

"Or that she always takes the last flan in the fridge even if you put your name on it,"

"Or the fact that she snores in her sleep so loudly that we thought that a wild Pokémon had broken into the base."

"You guys…" Well at this point she looked outright steamed.

"Even despite all of that…" They both said as they took a mirrored pose, each one pointing dramatically at out trainers. "We'll still follow her to the ends of the seas!"

"Would you two shut up about me and crush these guys into the dirt!" She yelled, her face as red as a ripe Cheri berry.

"Yes Ma'am Lieutenant Leader Carol Ma'am!" They both yelled out with as much enthusiasm as they had shown from the start.

"So what you guys are saying," Nikki said with a smile on his face. "Is that you guys have a base somewhere, big enough that it has a fridge and enough room for multiple people to sleep in it." He said with a friendly smile, the same he had given me when he had made me walk earlier.

All three of them froze in place, the twins gulping after a while. Finally, Carol looked at Nikki with the sweetest, most innocent smile I had ever seen the criminal wear.

"Please don't tell the cops." She said in a voice as sweet as her face.

"Actually I think I will," Nikki said, his own smile never leaving his face.

Unfortunately for her, it looked Nikki had found a second sweet thing he didn't care for.

The smile dropped from Carol's face, replaced by a look of fear.

"Dwain is going to kill us," She muttered. "Well, you know what, the least we can do is take you guys down! Girl's get them."

"Yes Ma'am Lieutenant Leader Carol Ma'am!" The two of them repeated. This time however, Nikki didn't interrupt them. They stepped forward and the battle began.

"Chinchou, use bubble beam." Both of the twin trainers yelled as two torrents of bubbles came right for us.

"Scatter," Laura and Nikki yelled as I boosted to another branch. Below me, Shroomish and Oddish ran through the water.

While the bubble beams hadn't done any damage, it had forced us to split up.

But on the other hand, we now surrounded the two Chinchou in a triangular shape.

"Chinchou, back to back." Both of the trainers yelled as their pokémon faced opposite of each other. "Now confuse ray!"

Both Chinchou's antenna flashed with sinister purplish lights.

"Cover your eyes." I heard Nikki and Laura both yell.

I didn't wait, I crossed my arms in front of my face and squeezed my eyes shut. Even with my eyes closed, I could still see the flash of purple and orange lights from behind my eyelids. If they were this bright and disorientating indirectly I couldn't even imagine what it would have been like if I hadn't covered my eyes.

"Well, it looks like we got two of them Sis."

I opened my eyes and gulped at the sight. Both Oddish and Shroomish were stumbling around dizzy. Without a word, both Chinchou turned to look at me and smiled. I smiled and waved back nervously.

"Chinchou," Both of the Neo-Aqua grunts said. "Take that Ralts down!"

Both Chinchou unleashed everything they had at me. Both of them unleashed bubble beam that came straight at me. One of them shot at me with the rainbow colored beam that had bought Grovyle down, while the other sent a blast of lighting that arced through the air towards me.

"Brook Teleport and counterattack with confusion."

"Good idea Nikki, but where exactly would I…

I jumped towards the barrage of attacks, my reserves stocked and ready for the strain of a teleport followed by a confusion. I waited until all of the attacks were just about to hit me when I made my move.

The attacks all converged, creating a giant explosion of force that sent concealing smoke everywhere.

"Did we get her?" one of the Chinchou said as they tried to peer into the smoke.

"With an attack like that? We probably did." The other said with a confident voice."

"Guess again fish faces!" I screamed in triumph from the spot in midair behind them that I had teleported to.

"Chinchou!" I heard both of the twin Neo-Aqua grunts yell as I brought both of my arms forward and unloaded. Both of the Chinchou turned around just in time to take one of the green-tinted blasts of psychic energy right to the face. I barked a laugh as the blast from my attack sent me flying back towards a lower branch on a large tree I had picked out from the start.

Both of them went flying and hit the water with a splash.

I landed on my branch perch and watched the water.

Neither of the Chinchou had come back up out of the water. Now normally this would have me worried that I had accidentally drowned my opponents, but they were both water types so it was probably fine. No who I had to worry about was myself. I took in deep, steady breaths, keeping my ears open. I got ready for an attack from under the water. An attack I knew was coming from the fact that the twins were looking at the water with concentrated expressions.

I saw both of their eyes light up for a second and I got ready for whatever they threw at me.

"Chinchou, use Signal Beam!" They both ordered as twin rainbow beams shot out of the water, one from the right and the other from my left.

"Brook dodge!" I heard Nikki say as I boosted upwards, grabbing the branch above me and tucking my legs in. Both beams passed below me harmlessly.

"If that won't work,"

"Then we'll just have to take it up a notch."

I swung my legs forward and let go of the branch just as they fired again. I flipped through the air and pointed my arms downwards and boosted upwards. I grabbed onto another branch and scrambled up as the Chinchou fired again. I twisted on the branch, dodging both beams.

"Brook, keep dodging."

 _"Thanks Nikki, good plan!"_ I told him telepathically with as much sarcasm as I could manage. I ducked underneath another beam and jumped towards another branch.

It was at that moment that I realized that I had a little bit of an issue. The signal beams were slowly forcing me upwards along the tree. And from where I was looking, I didn't have too much tree left.

I jumped, scrambled, and boosted up the tree, dodging the beams all the while. I had a few close calls, the beams just grazing me and leaving small burns. I jumped off another branch and boosted upwards, just clearing another pair of beams. I cut off the boost early, stopping myself by grabbing onto the top branch. I had made it to the top of the tree, and I could no longer dodge upwards.

I danced around the top of the tree, constantly on the move as the beams kept flying. Every time I tried to find one of them to counterattack, they ducked underwater while the other shot at me.

I glanced over at another tree in the distance. I could have made the jump if they weren't taking shots at me. But with all the beams in the air, I didn't want to chance it if I could think of another idea.

Plus a part of me felt as though that if I tried to jump and boost across, I would end up fried by lighting.

"Okay, so now what do I do," I asked myself as I watched the Chinchou surface again. I got ready to dodge again when one of them got hit by a barrage of golden seeds. I followed the trail of the seeds to see…

"Shroomish!" I yelled out as the mushroom lifted his head and glared. Looked like he had Bullet seed down already.

"You got it Shroomish, use bullet seed again," Nikki commanded as he lowered his head again to unleash another bullet seed.

Before the other Chinchou could react, Oddish jumped in from out of nowhere and landed on top of them.

"Oddish, use mega drain!" Laura yelled as Oddish glowed green and Chinchou let out a pained cry. The damage from both of those plus the all-out confusion that I had landed earlier was more than enough. Both of the Chinchou keeled over and floated in the water.

"Chinchou return!" Both of the twins said as the Chinchou withdrew. We had three pokémon to their zero now. Victory was ours, and Team Neo-Aqua didn't have a lot of options now.

"So…" Carol started.

"So…" Said one twin.

"So…" Said the other.

"Bye!" All three of them dropped their stuff and ran off as fast as they could through the swamp.

"Looks like we won Shroomish," I said as I jumped down and use my boost to stabilize myself. I landed on the branch of a tiny tree next to Shroomish. "And, well… Sorry about the whole 'using you as a platform' thing."

He was silent for a while before glancing at the part of the tree coming out of the water.

"Wait don't!" I said as he tackled the tree, shaking me and making me fall into the filthy swamp water below.

"Khe," He said as I groaned and tried to get as much of the water off me as possible.

"What did you say?" I asked as I gave up on trying to get this stuff off me.

"Khe, I've decided that it's the first half. The first half of my name."

"Hey good for you," I told him as wadded through the water and put my hand on top of him. "Just calling you Shroomish was getting weird."

He made just the barest hint of a smile.

"It's good to know that I'm making it less weird."

We walked back to our trainers, victory in hand.

* * *

With Team Neo-Aqua dealt with, all that was left was dealing with the police who arrived about an hour later. To our surprise, Hank and Conner, the two detectives from Petalburg port where here too. It was fun, we met Rina and Rico's parents, got to laugh about how dumb Carol's plan was, and we told them all about the apparent base that they had somewhere.

"And they just told you they had all of this?" Hank sounded like he almost didn't believe us.

"I think that if we've established one thing, it's that Both Neo Teams are not led by smart of clever people." I pointed out to which Hank just shrugged.

"I can organize an investigation of old Team Aqua hideouts. It's much more likely that they've co-opted one of those instead of building a new base entirely." Conner said as he wrote something into his notebook.

Hank nodded and got closer to the other detective. "Just to be thorough," He said just loudly enough for me to hear. "Check the old Magma bases too. If one of these teams has a base, the other might have one too."

The more stoic of the detectives nodded and walked away.

"Well, try to stay out of trouble kid," Hank told me as he started leaving. While some of the police would stay behind for a few days to make sure that Carol and the twins didn't come back, the detectives had other cases and other leads they had to look into.

We ended up staying the night at the insistence of the whole family. Rina and her Grovyle helped me with Shroomish's Bullet seed and Rico had, when we thought we weren't looking, had a blast playing with the rest of our Pokémon.

We left the next morning, the road to Rustboro clear. I couldn't help but smile as I heard a pair of groans coming from either side of me.

"Come on guys, if we keep up this pace, we get to stay the night in the Rustboro pokécenter." I sang as Brook and Vimilky walked with me.

 _"Get even,"_ Brook told me telepathically as she barked something aloud. Vimilky chuckled at whatever Brook said, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Still, maybe a change in subject was in order. Get something constructive done while we walked to our destination.

"So the next gym uses rock types and…"


	8. Episode 8

**Episode 8: Roaming through Rustboro**

* * *

The Rustboro Pokécenter was in the smackdab middle of the city. It was also a generic looking building with the exception of the trademark red roof.

I was starting to think that the modern art piece that was the Petalburg Pokécenter was the odd one out.

"Well, at least this one had a pretty good breakfast," I said aloud as I sipped some oran juice.

"You say something?" Laura said in-between bites as she scarfed down her food. Our pokémon looked on as she demolished the plate, some of them impressed and others digested.

"Oh, nothing, just talking to myself,"

"Cool, anything interesting?"

"Nah, just thinking about pokécenters,"

"You mean like how this one was so hard to find?" she tossed back a swig of apple juice as I rolled my eyes.

She was right though, finding this place had been a chore. We had arrived at the city at way-to-late-o'clock. We had then spent most of the afternoon scouring the city for the pokécenter, only to find out that we had passed by the place at least three times.

It made the sleep that we got once we got to our room only the sweeter. It had also more than satisfied Brook and Vimilky's desire for vengeance. I had recalled them both once we made it into the city limits, and as Laura and I wandered around the city I learned two things. The first was that Brook could telepathically communicate with me from insider her pokéball. The second was that she found my inability to find the pokécenter fitting punishment for making her walk. She also found it hilarious, seeing as how most of her telepathic messages were just laughter.

Although now that I thought of it, maybe that counted as three things.

We finished our foods and placed the trays to the side to throw out when we got up. I took out a tourist's map of Rustboro that had been free at the pokécenter's front desk. Laura looked on as I unfolded the map in front of us.

"So what were you thinking?" She asked as her eyes scanned the map. "Because I was thinking we could check out some of the sights in the morning and head to the gym for your battle in the early afternoon."

I glanced down to the where the Rustboro Gym was on the map. Right next door was Rustboro's famous pokémon school and a note that Roxanne was also a teacher for the younger kids at the school. Which meant that she was unavailable for gym battles at certain times of the day.

For example, right now. So we had to find something to kill time with until the early classes ended for the day.

Of course, before we did any of that stuff, I needed to do something else. Something that was of vital importance.

"Oh wow, Nikki is that you?" A familiar voice said behind me.

I threw my head back to look behind me. If I was seeing things right, it looked like an upside-down May.

"Oh hey May," I hadn't seen Brendan's Ex not-girlfriend in a while. Mostly because she lived in Littleroot and only really showing up in Petalburg for big 'family' events. She'd shown up less and less in the past year after she and Brendan broke up after years of doing stuff that looked like dating, but for some reason was not dating.

We all had a betting pool for when the two would bury the hatchet and get back together. Until then we were all still on friendly terms with her.

"Looks like I got my dates right." She smiled warmly as she walked over and took the seat next to our pokémon. "Oh look at these guys." She laughed as she rubbed the top of Brook's head. "My, aren't you a cutie with that bandana of yours."

 _"_ _Not cute!"_ Brook let out as she fought off May's hand. I couldn't help but smile and find the whole thing adorable.

"I know the Ralts is yours, what about the others?" She asked as she retracted her hand.

"The Mawile whose name is Vimilky and the Shroomish are both with me. The Oddish and the Doduo are with Laura here." I pointed at Laura who May had ignored until that point.

"Oh hi there, you must be that girl That Nikki is traveling with." Was that some coldness in her voice I heard? "What was your name again?"

"My name is Laura," She suddenly sounded really tired compared to how she sounded a few moments ago.

"Oh, that's right, silly me for forgetting." May giggled with her mouth but somehow managed to scowl with her eyes at the same time.

I looked over at Brook and focused my mind. I heard somewhere that having a pokémon speak with you telepathically could help someone unlock their own abilities.

 _'_ _What is going on?'_ I screamed at Brook mentally, hoping that she would hear it and that she would have an answer. With how she was yawning and looking completely unconcerned, I could guess that it hadn't worked.

I tried again, focusing myself as I stared at Brook. She eventually noticed my stare and raised an eyebrow.

 _'_ _Are you okay?'_ She asked as she leaned a little closer.

Instead of answering back, I tried talking to her mentally again. With how impatient she was starting to look, it probably wasn't working.

"Nikki, what are you doing?" May's voice snapped me out of it. I shook my head a little and saw that both May and Laura were giving me concerned looks.

"I was trying to talk to Brook telepathically. It didn't work."

 _'_ _So that's it.'_ She got a smug look on her face and waited a few moments before sending another message. ' _Just ask for help from me,'_

"Maybe later Brook. So what are you doing in Rustboro anyway May?"

She leaned back as she rubbed the top of Vimilky's head. "Well, I was actually already here to check out some new research that that was getting done at the Rustboro Museum. I heard that you were going to be stopping by the city so I decided that I was going to stay an extra day to see you and watch your gym battle."

"How did you know that I was going to stop by the city?"

"Your parent's told me that you fought on a ship right before I left for Rustboro. I basically just guessed how many more days it would take for you to get here and hoped that I got lucky."

"Clever plan, so what was your plan if we got here and I decided that I wanted to fight the gym tomorrow?"

"I have a few more days off before I have to head back to my dad's lab. I could have stuck around a bit."

"Well," Laura cut in as I suddenly felt a little guilty for excluding her from the conversation. "Before we got here we were actually planning what we were going to do while we waited for the gym to open later."

May glanced down at the map and grimaced.

"Oh, Nikki, no, not this. This? This is a list of the touristiest stuff in the city," She said as she picked up the map with two fingers like it was something filthy. "Tell you what, how about I give you and your… friend," There it was, that judgmental coldness again. "A tour of some of the best spots in Rustboro. Coming from someone who's actually been around the city a few times."

"Sounds good." Laura grabbed the trays and got up from the table. "So where are we going first?" She asked as she left the trays in their designated spot.

"Well, I think that the first place we should go to is Devon Corp HQ. They have tours of the whole place early in the morning and Brendan and I are friends with the CEO and his son so we might even be able to get some special access."

My gaze shot towards Laura who's gazed at me right back. Without a single spoken word, we both knew what we had to say.

"Actually maybe we shouldn't go to Devon Corp," I suggested while trying to keep my voice as even as possible.

"Yeah, what else to do you have? I think I'm up for anything but Devon."

Darn it Laura that last part was way too specific. I watched May, wondering what to do if she tried to ask for a specific why we didn't want to visit Devon HQ.

"Well," May said as she looked at both of us suspiciously. "We could also go to the point. It's the northernmost skyscraper in Rustboro and you can see the whole city from the viewing platform at the top."

"That sounds great," I said as I recalled all three of my pokémon.

"Yeah, I think I heard about this place. It'll be nice to see it," Laura recalled her own pokémon as May and I got up to from the table ourselves.

As we walked out the door, I suddenly remembered.

"Wait no, there's somewhere else we have to go first." I stopped suddenly and both girls did the same.

"Oh right, Almost forgot about that." Laura blinked as she started looking around us. "There should be a department store around here somewhere right?"

"What do you guys need?" May asked suspiciously.

"Well, it's more of something I need than anything else. Actually, this is the perfect chance to check for sure. May, can I borrow your pokédex for a second,"

May handed over her pokédex, looking more curious than anything else. The pokédex main menu booted up and waited for some sort of input. I unclipped Shroomish's pokéball and hooked it up to the dex. It loaded quickly and my face fell as I read the information that appeared.

"I knew it," I said as I took out my own pokédex. "Piece of garbage, that's what you are."

"Are you okay?" May asked me, probably because I just talked to my pokédex like it could understand me. Which, in my defense, was a feature in some of the really high-end ones if I had read that article right.

"I spent a nice chunk of my saving on a pokédex that can't scan things correctly."

"Oh wow, are you sure?"

"Yeah you see when I got Shroomish, I scanned him and it told me that he had Poison Heal. Then a few days ago he poisoned during the battle tournament on the boat I took from Dewford Island back to the mainland."

"That doesn't sound right…"

"You're right it doesn't. So I decided to go to a pokédex store and check to see if there was something wrong with mine. There probably is because when I scanned Shroomish with your dex it told me that he had effect spore instead."

"Yeah that sounds like a problem," May said looking like she just spotted an opportunity. "One that I can help you out with. Follow me." Laura and I looked at each other and shrugged as May walked off.

I followed after her, after all, it was May. I trusted May, she was a good friend and a part of me already considered her part of the family.

Still, I couldn't help but wonder if I was getting myself into something that I was going to regret.

That thought of mine only grew and grew as we headed further and further into the south-eastern portion of Rustboro city. There wasn't too much see in this part of the city for travelers like us. Mostly because it was all residential.

We walked past townhouse after townhouse, the buildings getting short and shorter the further we got from the city center.

I thought that maybe May was taking me to a small shopping district nestled deep in this residential area. However, instead of doing something that made sense like that, we stopped in front of a tan three-story building.

"What is this place? I asked, a little worried that we were about to bother someone.

"A friend of mine lives here," May explained as she walked up to the door and held her fist up to the door. She leaned her arm back to knock, before scowling and banging on the door instead. "Mica, open this door. I need you to do me a favor,"

The sound of a window smacking open made us all look up. A girl with long purple hair and wearing a black t-shirt and thick-rimmed glasses looked down at us from the second-floor window.

"Are you trying to break my door down?" She said as she slammed her hands down on the windowsill. "This place has a doorbell, use it!"

"We both know that you don't pay attention to that thing," May crossed her arms defiantly. "Plus this way everyone knows that I'm looking for you. So get down here and open up."

"Why are we friends again?" Mica asked herself as she stepped back from the window. "Oh right because…" I couldn't hear the rest of what she said as she walked away, hopefully, to open the door for us.

"Come in come in, make yourself at home, you always do anyway," Mica told May as we all walked up to the second-floor apartment. Laura and I followed up afterwards, trying to look as small as possible. With how annoyed the purple haired girl looked, it was probably best to avoid her attention.

"And who are the munchkins?" She screamed as she pointed at the two of us.

Well, there goes that plan.

"Oh, the boy is Nicholas Maple, Brendan's cousin. The other one is some girl he's traveling with."

I made a mental note to investigate Professor Birch for illegal Human cross ice type Pokémon hybrids because that was ice cold.

"So what does any of this have to do with replacing my faulty pokédex?" I asked, trying to change the conversation. Mica's face lit up at the mere mention of the word 'pokédex'. She rushed over to me and grabbed me by the shoulder.

"By the time you walk out of this house, you will feel the need to worship the ground I walk on, now hand over your pokédex."

I gulped as I took my dex out of my pocket. I held it up in the air between us. Mica didn't even hesitate, grabbing the dex and me before walking off towards a door.

I looked back at May and Laura who waved as I was dragged away. Mica pulled me into what looked like her living room before slamming the door behind us.

"Let's see here, type-c model, version two, looks like the simple version," She muttered as she looked the dex over. "Don't trust whoever bought this for you, someone willing to cheap out on someone's new pokédex is someone to not be trusted."

"I bought it for myself because I didn't want to have someone else buy it for me. I couldn't afford any of the more expensive ones." I admitted honestly. Now that I knew that the dex had something wrong with it, I felt a little dumb for refusing a free top-of-the-line pokédex from Brendan.

"Well, you know what they say," She gave me a snide glare. "Trust no one, not even yourself,"

"I don't think anyone

She walked over to a door off to the side, still muttering stuff about my pokédex the whole time. She suddenly muttering and looked up and over at me and motioned to follow her through another door.

My first thought when entering the room was 'so this is what a mad engineer's room looked like. The walls were lined with rows and rows of tools. There was a bench adjacent on every wall, except the part that had to be clear or otherwise you couldn't open the door. Some of the desks had papers or complicated looking workstation on them, but the majority were covered in hills and mountains worth's of spare parts, whatever machines they had been taken from, and half-finished projects.

"I don't know if I should be excited or terrified," I muttered as Mica slapped my pokédex on the table. She glared at it before suddenly running around the room, grabbing various tools of the walls. "Probably a bit of both."

"Good call," She said as she booted the pokédex up. She grimaced as the screen lit up. "Software version 2.1.4, I knew it. Still can't believe they did this,"

"Did what?" I dared to ask.

"The pokédex software on your dex has a bunch of bugs in it. You see this version of the software has a few new features that were completely broken. The next version of the software fixed most of them, but it also introduced another new feature. Unfortunately, the new feature needs a piece of hardware that the simple version of this pokédex doesn't have."

"You mean that pokéball link thing?" I asked as I thought back to the pushy salesman that I bought my dex from. "The guy in the store tried to convince me to upgrade to get it, but he didn't really explain it that well. Now that I think of it, I'm not even sure he knew what it was."

"It's a feature that lets you connect all of your pokéballs so that your pokémon can play, train and interact with each other without needing to leave the pokéball. It uses the same set of hardware that is usually used to turn the pokédex into a portable PC, the kind that lets you switch pokémon out in the field."

"Sound's good, but what's the problem?"

"The problem is that since the simple version doesn't have the right hardware, they would have needed to make a different version of the path just for it. They decided that it would be a waste of money and just decided to discontinue the simple version."

"So that's why my pokédex told me that my Shroomish had an ability it didn't really have?"

"Yeah displaying wrong information is a known issue with this version. So I can do one of two things for you. I can either apply an unofficial version of the patch that we in the pokédex modding community made, or I can give this thing the works."

"What are the works?"

She smirked like she had just heard a funny joke.

"The works mean that I use the parts I have laying around here to turn your zero pokédex into a hero pokédex." She put on a mic grin. "Every extra feature on a modern pokédex plus a few made by the modding community. All of it free of charge of course, pokédex modding is already walking the line between legal and illegal as it is."

"That sounds awesome, why would I not choose that."

"It breaks the warranty,"

"What?" I watched in bewilderment as Mica leaned back against the table behind her. "That's it?"

"You know how hard it is to break the warranty on a pokédex? These things are built to last and they have a warranty to match. There are some people who would back out from that alone."

"Well I'm not one of them, give it the works."

She quickly covered her mouth and started shaking. Before I could ask her what was wrong, I realized what she was doing. She was laughing.

"Oh it's been so long since I've had a chance to do this," She grabbed one of the tools she had taken off the wall earlier and spun it in her hand. "Come back tomorrow and I'll have a brand new pokédex waiting for you."

I could only watch in amazement as she started taking my pokédex apart with one hand and shooed me out of the room with the other. Before I was really sure of what happened I was standing outside her door next to Laura and May.

"Is she giving your pokédex the works?" May asked with a knowing smile on her face.

"Yeah, she did. Where did you, how did you, just, what was all that?" May smiled cheekily at my confusion.

"I met Mica a few years ago, it honestly a really long story that I don't really have time to go in to here. But the important part is that after we met, I did her several favors that she's still paying me back for."

"And you got her to upgrade your pokédex?"

"That's right, and I figured that since you needed a new Dex too, well why not spend another favor upgrading yours." She said as she took out her own dex, a fancy looking device that I had to admit, looked really impressive. "Trust me, you're going to love it,"

"Thanks' May, you're the best." I bit my tongue before I accidentally said the second half of what I wanted to say. 'I should have taken Brendan's offer while I had the chance.'

No need to make things awkward now by invoking Brendan, not when I still didn't know the reason why the two of them split in the first place.

"That sounds pretty cool, Maybe I should get mine upgraded too?" Laura took out her own pokédex as looked it over.

"Oh I'm sorry," May said looking sympathetic to my surprise. Had the two girls fixed whatever issue they had between them while I had been talking to Mica? "Mica owed me a favor so that's why she upgrading Nikki's pokédex for free. If you want to get what Nikki's getting, you have to pay out of pocket,"

"Oh," Laura looked a little discouraged but asked anyway. "How much would it cost?"

"Oh not much. For what Nikki's getting, Mica usually charges…" May recited a number that made me gulp. "But I'm sure you totally have that much money on you right?"

Nope, it looked like whatever weird thing was still there. I tried not to think about it too much, instead checking the time on my pokénav. It was still too early for the gym to my chagrin.

"So where are we off to know, are we still going to that place you were talking about or…"

"Well maybe not, it's way too far north to be honest," May said, looking successfully distracted. "But I do have something else we can do here in the area. Follow me."

May led us through another trip through Rustboro's scenic south-eastern residential area. We walked for a good while before reaching a place that looked like the kind of place that I had been expecting May to take us to.

It was a long street, lined on both sides by long rows of small stores. Between the two were tons of walkways that let someone cross the street in loads of places.

We spent maybe a good hour walking down the road, checking out any store that caught my eye. We saw a few clothing stores, some pawn shops, even a trainer supply store. They even had a few Technical Machines that I could in no way afford.

And throughout it all, store after store, May kept up the whole 'dump on Laura thing'. She was careful not to say anything too obvious, instead going for my indirect and subtle jabs. From cracks about her money, or lack thereof, to jokes about her clothes, to even a joke about her pokémon while we were in the trainer supply store.

 _"_ _Oh too far!"_ I heard Brook say in my head. And to be honest, I had to agree.

"Hey May, can I talk to you for a little bit, just for a moment." I dragged May away by the shoulder as Laura let out a sigh of relief that she had gotten a break from the older girl.

"What is going on?" I angrily whispered once I was sure we were out of earshot. "You've been acting like a jerk to Laura all day. What do you have against her, you just met her?"

Instead of having the decency to look ashamed, May instead had a giant grin on her face.

"Finally, a chance to talk to you alone. I thought that if I just kept hounding that girl that she'd leave for a while on her own but this works too." May put on a serious face and grabbed me by the shoulders. "Nikki I need you to listen to me very carefully,"

"Okay," I whispered out, too stunned by the intense and slightly terrifying look in May's eyes to say anything else.

"That girl Laura, do not trust her. Not know at least. It's too dangerous."

"What are you talking about?"

"I can't tell you more here, it's too open, too many ears. All you have to know is that I've found out something, something big. So big that we can't trust anyone we don't know."

"May are you okay? You're scaring me,"

"Listen to me Nikki, you don't need to ditch this girl. In fact, don't ditch her at all, it might tip them off that we're on to them." May got a determined look on her face that I would have normally would have found inspiring. Instead, it was just terrifying. "Just be ready for when the time comes to cut ties and run,"

"Hey are you guys done I think I found a store that Nikki might…" Laura trailed off as she saw May gripping my shoulders. "Are you guys okay?"

May must have realized how it looked because she let go and took a step back. "Oh sorry about that, got a bit too intense there," She laughed as she put her hands up as if to say that she was backing off.

"Intense about what?" Laura asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Oh don't you worry about that," She said actually sounding nice to Laura for the first time since she met her. I guess she really was trying to get Laura to leave for a little bit so that she could talk to me.

"Okay then, Nikki are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine," I said, as far from fine as a wool string. The last thing I wanted to make a scene here. I decided to just contact Prof Birch later and ask him about May. "So what were you saying about a store?"

"Oh yeah, I found a store that you might find interesting," She gave a come-on gesture and I followed after her.

The store in question was a tiny little place called the golden spoon. While the name at first had me thinking that it was some sort of store that sold fancy eating utensils, the Kadabra painting on the wall told me otherwise. A smaller sign below the Kadabra that I saw as I got closer claimed that it was a store for Psychic-type trainers. And while I wasn't a psychic type trainer, I was a trainer with a psychic type pokémon. I figured that it would be close enough for the store to have something for me.

"See something interesting?" May asked as I walked up to the store.

"Yeah want to see if they have anything for a Ralts," I explained as I opened the door to the store. I walked in, leaving Laura and May behind me.

As I walked into the store, my eyebrow raising at the lack of bell. There was no one at the store's counter, so how would they know that someone's come in?

"Welcome, I know you're there. Just, just give me a moment back here and I'll be right out," I heard a voice from beyond the door behind the counter say.

Oh, right psychic.

I took the chance to look the store over as I waited for the man to come out from the door. The store was pretty compact, with two large bookcases covering both the far wall and the back wall opposite the window. On the shelves were rows and rows of books. The books were separated into sections, with a large price tag below each section. In the center were a pair of long tables covered in what looked like psychic themed items and accessories.

"Sorry about that, you caught me at a bad time," The man that walked out the door and stood behind the counter wasn't what I would have expected from a psychic type trainer. Instead of a robe or some other kind of mystical looking clothing, he wore a plain pale purple dress shirt and some black slacks. He even had a plain looking face if I had to be honest.

He laughed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah I know, I don't exactly have the typical psychic type trainer 'look'. Its fine, I've heard it a thousand times already."

I guess my thoughts were written a bit too clearly on my face. Or had me managed to read my mind? He was a psychic type trainer.

"No I didn't read your mind," He said as he held up both of his hand up. "It's just that it's usually the very next thing people ask me."

"You know what? That makes sense," I admitted. "So I'm not exactly a Physic type specialist or anything, but I do have a Ralts. Do you have anything for her or maybe for me?

He rubbed his chin and hummed. "Maybe… Can I see her? It should get me a better idea of what I can do for either of you."

"Oh sure," I told him as I reached for Book's pokéball.

* * *

This place gave me the creeps. I didn't know exactly what it was that weird me out, but I was on edge ever since Nikki walked in. As Nikki grabbed my pokéball and brought me out, I decided to just take it as a sign that this place was legit.

The strange feeling man hovered over me, looking me over as though he was looking for something that only he would see. With the vibes I was getting off him, he easily could have.

"I see, an interesting little one you have here. I'm pretty sure that I've never seen a Ralts like her before,"

 _"Ask him what he means now!"_ I telepathically screamed at Nikki, which he probably didn't appreciate with how he was holding his head. While I would have normally have taken that as a compliment. But the way he said it sent a shiver down my spine.

"She wants to know what you mean," Nikki said as he rubbed the side of his head. "Geez Brook, did you have to do it that loudly. Its telepathy, I literally can't not hear you."

"Already a good handle on telepathic communication with their trainer at this stage in development. She just gets more and more fascinating," He bent down so he was looking at me at eye level. "She doesn't have her empathy sense, not born in the wild then." I gulped as I sensed in what route conversation was headed.

"No, I caught her in the woods outside of Petalburg," He blinked and tilted his head at that.

"Impossible, if that was the case her parents would have…"

I desperately tried banishing the thoughts of mother that the word 'parents' brought up. I was fine, she was gone, I was free.

"Let's just say that bad parenting isn't as human a concept that I thought it was before I met Brook. Let's leave it at that." Nikki put his finger over my shoulder as though to block me from the man.

 _"Thanks,"_ I was grateful to not have to deal with that again.

The man took another look at me before backing off.

"I understand, far too well if I'm being honest." He said as he stood back up and walked out from behind the counter. "Well, I may have a thing or two that might be of interest to you."

Nikki picked me up and put me on my shoulder perch. We followed him to the first of the long tables.

"What about this one?" He held up what looked like a collar. It was made from a dull golden cloth, with a purple stone of some sort in the center. "It's a collar that helps with the development of psychic abilities. Well, to be honest, it's the stone that does all the work, the rest of it is just a fancy way to carry it around."

"I guess it looks nice, but isn't it a little too big to fit on Brook, plus I'm not exactly sure that she'd appreciate being in a collar," Nikki said correctly. I may have been onboard the human trained pokémon train, but I still had some pride.

Plus I was already wearing a green bandana around my neck and I didn't think the gold and purple collar would mesh well.

"Your Ralts?" The man looked confused before suddenly nodding. "Oh I think you have the wrong idea, this isn't for your Ralts, this is for you."

"Oh…" Nikki looked down at the collar that I was now seeing in a new light. While I was heavily against me wearing the collar, Nikki wearing the collar was a different story. "Yeah, that's not happening,"

 _"Come on do it,"_ I teased as I imagined him wearing the collar.

"I'll wear it if you do." He shot back.

"Alas, I only have the version meant for humans on me at the time," The strange man added as he put the collar on the table. "But would you at least hear me out?"

"Fine," Nikki said sounding conflicted. "What does it do?"

"Well like I said, it helps budding psychics build up their power,"

"But I don't have any psychic type abilities."

"Yes, that is true, in a sense,"

"I'm sorry, are you telling me that I have psychic powers? Because if you are then that changes a lot of things," Nikki said, sounding much more interested then he had a minute ago.

The man laughed at Nikki's new found enthusiasm.

"While it is true that you were not born with either an innate connection to the sea of power or the potential to forge one, you do have something else." He pointed down at me and smiled. "A psychic-type starter that you've spent some time with."

"Wait so that rumor about trainers that are spoken to telepathically by their pokémon getting psychic powers is true,"

"Yes and no. You see telepathic communication can build up a psychic connection, but it doesn't just happen. It requires work and training on the trainers' part. Don't expect to be tossing buildings around, or levitating through the sky anytime soon. That's where the collar comes in. Think of it like this. When your Ralts speaks to you, she leaves behind tinder, and this collar will help you light the sparks needed to turn that tinder into a flame of psychic power."

"So what do you think I could do with this power?"

"Long term, you could use your power as a third, fourth or maybe even fifth arm after years of training. Short term, on the other hand, I imagine that you could learn to telepathically speak with your Ralts with a bit of work."

In the end, Nikki not only bought the collar, but also a book of basic exercises that would help him unlock his power.

"Thanks for this," Nikki said as he paid the man. "This will really come in handy," We walked to the door, the collar in a bag in Nikki's hand. "Goodbye,"

"You're welcome Nicholas Maple," The man said as we went outside. For some reason, I felt a shiver go down my spine as the door closed. Why did that bother me so much?

It suddenly hit me.

 _"Nikki, when did you give him your name?"_

He froze in place. He grabbed on to me so that I wouldn't fall off. Good thing too because he spun so fast that I might have fallen off otherwise.

"Are you two okay?" If we had looked over, we would have seen May and Laura, united in their concern. But we were a little distracted by the fact that the store wasn't there anymore!

"How, they were right here?" Nikki screamed.

 _"I don't know!"_ I screamed back.

"Hey, where did you get that bag?" May asked, pointing at the bag Nikki was carrying.

Nikki and I just looked at each other and came to a silent agreement.

Nikki started marching away as he checked his pokénav. "Oh hey look, if we leave now we can totally make it to Rustboro gym just as it opens."

He turned out to be more right than he probably expected. We traveled through Rustboro, intent on trying to not think about what just happened. So intent in fact, that I didn't even bother going back into my pokéball.

We reached the gym just as a young woman wearing a gray and pink suit. She wore her brown hair in a neat bun and she had a no-nonsense look on her face.

"Hello there, is the gym open?" Nikki asked with a hand raised in greeting. I trilled as I did the same with my hand.

"Why yes it… May is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me," May laughed. "It's good to see you, how's the trainer school going?"

"Pretty good, are you taking the gym challenge this year?"

"Of course I'm not," May put her hand on my shoulder. "I'm just here to watch Nikki's second gym badge."

"Oh is he a friend, I have to say, he looks a little familiar."

"He should, he's Brendan's younger cousin," May explained before Nikki had the chance to cut in. I held in a laugh. Nikki just couldn't get people to call him by his real name, could he?

"I see," Her eyes narrowed, "I hope you aren't expecting me to take it easy on you just because of your cousins' fame?"

Oh, here we go. Didn't even need an empathy sense to see this coming.

"You know I am getting really tired of people making that assumption!" While he didn't yell, he sure brought some intensity that I hadn't seen before. "Is it really that hard to believe that maybe, just maybe, I want to be treated like any other trainer? That I'm getting real tired of living in the parade of giant shadows that are my family? That I want to see how far I get with my own power, without relying on Brendan?"

I grabbed on to Nikki's head as he leaned forward, putting his hands on his knees. His breath was quick and ragged, the short rant haven taken a lot of him.

No surprise, he probably had that bubbling for a while.

Everyone stood around awkwardly, not sure what to say.

"Leaning over like that makes it harder to catch your breath." All of our heads snapped towards Laura who blushed and looked off to the side. "It restricts your lungs, try putting your hand behind your head and taking deep breaths instead."

Nikki silently nodded as he started putting his hands behind his head. Only one problem with that.

 _"Hey, I'm still here!"_ I told him as I batted his arm away.

"Sorry," He breathed as he put that arm to the side.

Everyone gave Nikki a moment to recover. He walked up to the woman who I assumed was the gym leader. He scratched his face, which was as red as my head crest.

"Sorry about that, I'm not sure what came over me,"

"It's okay," The gym leader admitted. "That sounded like you've been holding that in for a while now."

"Yeah, I have,"

There was another awkward silence that I personally broke with a small cough.

"Want to just forget about all this and just have a gym battle?" Nikki offered.

"Yes please," The gym leader accepted. "So how many pokémon do you have?"

A few minutes later Nikki and the gym leader, whose name was Roxanne, were standing across from each other on opposite end of the arena. Off to the side was a kid just a little younger the Nikki with a serious look on his face. And between the two, was the arena.

In place of a plain dirt floor like the last gym, this one had a rocky terrain with plenty of places to take cover or jump on. I had a good feeling about this kind of terrain, perfect for mine and Nikki's mobile style of fighting.

"The battle between the challenger Nicholas Maple of Petalburg city and Rustboro City Gym Leader Roxanne will now begin." The kid announced as he put his hand up. "This will be a three-on-three pokémon battle, the first to knock out all three of their opponent's pokémon wins. Only the challenger will have the ability to switch out his pokémon."

"Okay, let's do this Geodude," The gym leader tossed out a pokéball and a strange looking rock came out. The rock opened their eyes and unfolded themselves, revealing two arms.

I remembered what it was that Nikki had told us about this gym. Both steel and grass were good against rock so we had a clear advantage. An advantage we were planning to exploit for we could. Which, annoyingly enough, meant that I had to make myself comfortable on Nikki's shoulder as he unclipped Milk's pokéball from his shoulder.

"Go, Vimilky," Nikki called out as he threw her pokéball. Milk appeared in a flash of white as she stared down her opponent with a determined glare.

"Bring it," The Geodude planted one of her arms into the ground and, keeping herself up with only one hand, motioned for Vimilky to come on.

Milk glanced back at Nikki and I. "Wish me luck Brook," she said as she gave me a thumbs up."

"You got it Milk," I told her as I gave her my own thumbs up. "Give her your best,"

Milk rolled her eyes at the sound of her nickname but ignored it beyond that.

Both of the fighters looked at each other across the arena, sharing a look of determination.

"Begin," The young human boy in the center broke the silence as he brought his arm down. Both combatants started moving not even a second after.

Nikki was the first to give a command. "Vimilky, get in close and use iron head." Milk ran forward, vaulting over the rocks to close the distance as fast as possible.

"Geodude, use rock throw." The gym leader ordered as the Geodude scoped up a nearby rock and flung it right at Milk.

"Vimilky, duck," Milk dropped to her knees and leaned back, skidding across the ground as the rock flew harmlessly over her head.

"Nice try," I heard Milk cry out as she jumped out of her slide and flew at Geodude. Her other jaw glowed with a metallic sheen as she sung it right at Geodude.

"Geodude, defense curl!" The rock pulled in her arms, looking a lot like she had when she came out. Milk slammed her jaw into the Geodude, batting her into one of the rocks. Geodude unfolded, looking just fine. Well, mostly fine. The blow had left her half buried in the rock.

"Vimilky, follow up with another iron head while Geodude can't move!"

"Geodude, pull yourself out," Geodude planted both of her arms in the stone and pushed. Meanwhile, Milk charged forward, her upper jaw glowing again. She jumped and spun, seemingly planning to use her momentum to smack her jaw into Geodude. But just before the blow could land, Geodude managed to pull herself out of the side of the rock and then flung her arms forward to catch the jaw.

"Got you," She said as Milk's face paled.

Without something to keep her in the air, Geodude dropped to the ground, taking a panicking Milk with her.

"Vimilky, use fairy wind and aim it below you,"

"Please let this work," Milk cried as her jaws started glowing pink. Even with Geodude latched to her jaw, she still tried to spin it as fast as possible. And while it was the impressive gale that she showed me the night we met, it was still enough of a breeze to cushion her fall.

"Good job Vimilky, now, use iron head to get them off,"

"Would you," Milk planted both of her feet on the ground and glared at the Geodude who was still hanging on her jaw. "Get off of me!"

The Geodude hit the dirt with a satisfying smack. It must have hurt at least half as much it sounded because it was enough to make Geodude let go. She tumbled away before punching the ground to catch herself.

"Geodude, use rock tomb." Geodude nodded to her trainer's command before planting one of her hands in the ground and doing a single-handed handstand.

"Vimilky, get ready to jump!" Milk ran, just as Geodude punched the ground with her free hand. A tremor ran through the ground from Geodude's fist to Milk. Right before the tremor would reach Milk, it split and both tremors formed a square in the ground around Milk.

The walls of the pyramid-shaped stone prison rose up around Milk as she tried to jump out of the confinement. She made it, mostly. While she had been quick enough to clear the stone walls with her body, hew upper jaw was another story. The stones caught the metal appendage, keeping it in a vice grip and Milk without too much space to move.

"Oh no!" Nikki exclaimed, somewhat unhelpfully.

"Ow ow ow ow." Vimilky cried out just as unhelpfully as she clenched her jaw.

"Geodude, use rock throw,"

"Oh no," Nikki gulped.

"Oh no," Vimilky repeated.

"Oh yeah," Geodude countered as she scooped up a rock and gave us an almost sadistic look. She flung the rock right at Milk and this time, there was no way for her to slide underneath.

"Vimilky, endure it." Nikki grimaced as Vimilky curled herself up as the rock flew right at her. Even with her steel skin protecting her, she still let out a cry of pain as the stones tried and failed to dig into her skin.

 _"Not to be the trainer, but maybe switch?"_ I asked Nikki, knowing that such decisions were way out of my job description. I hoped that he wouldn't be too mad at me for trying to offer advice.

"You might be right," He said as he unclipped Shroomish's pokéball. I watched in surprise as he held out Vimilky's pokéball. "Vimilky return,"

While a part of me was touched that Nikki had taken my advice, another was annoyed that Vimilky was probably down to half health while Geodude still looked fine.

Vimilky let out a sigh of relief as she went back into her pokéball, the pressure instantly disappearing.

"Go, Shroomish," Nikki said as he lobbed the ball into the arena. It opened in midair and let Shroomish out before shooting back into Nikki's hand. No matter how many times I saw a trainer pull that trick I was always a little impressed.

"Geodude, keep your distance and use rock throw," The gym leader said as Geodude scooped up a rock again.

"Shroomish, use the stone pillars for cover and keep your distance too." Shroomish dived behind the stone pillar to his right just as the stone flew past the spot where he had been standing beforehand. "Okay now take a quick shoot with bullet seed,"

Shroomish took a quick peek past the stone pillar and let loose three or so seeds.

"Geodude, look out." The rock type followed her trainer's command and rolled out of the way of the seeds. "Now, throw back a rock throw to keep that Shroomish pinned."

Instead of scooping up a single large stone like last time, Geodude instead picked up a handful of smaller stones. Her arms became a blur, picking up and hurling stones at a speed to fast for me to see. With all the stones flying around the pillar, Shroomish had no obvious way to go.

 _"Okay, so what now?"_ I asked Nikki, trying to get his creative mind in gear.

"We can't just have Shroomish run out, he'll get torn apart." Nikki grimaced as each stone chipped away another piece of Shroomish's cover. "Or will he?" Nikki muttered as his eyes narrowed. He had noticed something that I hadn't, something about the stone barrage.

"Shroomish, when I give the signal, jump out to your right and fire back your own barrage,"

A few tense seconds passed, the Gym leader not looking as confident as when we started. She had her eyes locked onto the stone pillar, waiting for Shroomish to pop out from the right side of the rock.

"Shroomish now!"

"Geodude, quick rock throw!"

Shroomish sidestepped out from behind the rock, took aim, and fired with everything he had. Geodude tried to adjust her aim to hit him, only for the rocks to hit nothing but dirt.

I realized the trick pretty quickly, the simplicity of it all almost making me laugh. Shroomish had been standing with his back to the stone pillar so his right had been Nikki's left. The gym leader had assumed that Shroomish would follow Nikki's direction, not use his own.

In short, Geodude was aiming at the wrong spot and took a face full of bullet seeds. The rocks stopped flying as Geodude tried to cover her face as the golden seeds exploded on her face and arms. The dust settled, and Geodude laid on the ground, down and out of the fight.

"Geodude is unable to battle. Nicholas Maple and Shroomish win."

"Oh yeah, good job Nikki!"

"One down, two to go!"

Laura and May cheered from their seats on the side of the arena. Nikki and I grinned at each other as the Gym Leader recalled Geodude.

"Looks like you managed to take down one of my pokémon. Let's see how you do with this next one." She took out a different pokéball and tossed it onto the field. There was a flash of light and a strange looking bug appeared in the arena.

 _"How is that a rock?"_ I asked as I got a closer look at them. Their skin was a dull gray in some places, and a more greenish gray in others. Down each side of their body were a row of white feathers with red tips. Their face was a pair of large eyes on the end of antenna and a pair of red markers on space between them.

I guess the rock typing came from their rocky shell?

"Okay Shroomish, just like last time, keep your distance and use bullet seed."

"Anorith, dash through the rocks." The rock bug said something that I had no hope in translating before starting to scuttle around. He was quick for a rock, zipping and dashing through the rocks. I only caught the occasional glimpse from time to time, our opponent making good use of their cover.

"Shroomish try to get a bead on him." All three of us tried to keep track of the Anorith as they dashed from rock to rock.

"This is not working," Shroomish commented as Anorith speed past him.

"Oh forget it, new plan!" Nikki said as he grit his teeth. It was about time too, I was getting tired off trying to keep track of the Anorith. "Shroomish, jump on top of the rock."

Shroomish jumped up, landing on the rock he had been hiding behind earlier. He glared at the maze of rocks surrounding him, as though waiting for Anorith to pop out.

We had a good perch, perfect for shooting a bullet seed or stun spore should Anorith try to get closer to us. We had the high ground and with it, the advantage in the fight.

So why was the gym leader smiling?

"Anorith use rock tomb."

I heard a loud cracking sound from somewhere within the rocks, followed by a tremor that seemed to be getting closer.

Do all of her pokémon know that move? Should I already start planning to boost off in case of tremors? Because I was starting to get the feeling that this gym leader had a favorite move.

Nikki's reaction, on the other hand, was a bit more… confused.

"Anorith can learn rock tomb?"

 _"Looks like. So what do?"_ I told him, trying to get his head back in the game. He glanced at the incoming tremor and the terrain around the stone pillar. He grunted as he made his choice.

"Shroomish, jump now!"

Shroomish wasted no time, jumping off the stone pillar just as the earth around it erupted into a stone prison.

"Perfect," The gym leader smiled. Even if we had managed to escape the rock tomb, it had left us stranded in an unsafe position.

I could already guess what was coming next.

"Anorith, use fury cutter," The rock bug suddenly sprung out from the around a rock and flashed past Shroomish, leaving a shallow looking cut. Which, if Milk's fight on the boat a while back was any indication, was bad news for us. Before any of us could react, Anorith was already back to hiding among the rocks.

"What is it with us and fury cutter?" Nikki wondered aloud. I rolled my eyes, we had only encountered the move twice after all, and it hadn't worked last time. I was confident that it wouldn't work on us now.

"Anorith, fury cutter once more," The bug erupted out from cover once again, landing another cut on Shroomish. The cut looked a little deeper this time, with Shroomish actually wincing in pain.

Okay so maybe fury cutter would work on us this time.

"Darn it Shroomish, learn to dodge," I yelled from on top of Nikki's shoulder. I actually yelled with enough force to almost knock me off my perch. Fortunately, Nikki noticed in time and steadied me with his hand.

"I have an idea," Nikki whispered to me as he helped me back up. "Shroomish," He said much louder this time, "Get ready for Anorith to jump out again."

Shroomish nodded, lowering his body as much as his stubby body would allow and glaring at the rocks around him.

"Anorith, another fury cutter." The bug exploded from the rocks and leaped right at Shroomish.

"Shroomish, use stun spore all around you now!" Shroomish's eyes opened as an explosion of golden spores erupted from the top of his head. Instead of getting directed in a particular direction, the spores dissipated outwards like a golden cloud. A golden cloud that Anorith was on a collision course with.

"Anorith!" The gym leader called out as the rock bug flew through the cloud. The Anorith screeched out in pain as they flew past Shroomish. I could see them slow down with my own eyes as the spores crackled on contact with their stone skin.

But even slowed down as they were, it was nowhere near slow enough for Shroomish to get out of the way of the bug's claw.

Shroomish winced as the claw cut into him.

"Shroomish absorb," Nikki said as fast as he could. I saw Shroomish glow for a split second as he sapped as much energy as he could in the tiny amount of time he had.

"Shroomish are you okay?" Nikki said as the Anorith scuttled back into the rocks, slower than before.

"I'm fine, I can keep going!" Shroomish shouted back.

Nikki narrowed his eyes and glanced over at me.

"What did he say?"

 _"He's fine,"_ I told him.

"Yeah, I figured, just making sure." Nikki nodded and looked back to the fight. "Okay Shroomish, now that Anorith is paralyzed, we should have the upper hand."

I couldn't help but feel like Nikki was speaking a little too quickly there. Yeah, we managed to slow the speedy little rock down, but Shroomish wasn't looking too good. If I had to guess, he was one good hit away from going down.

The gym leader watched us, looking only a little impressed.

"Anorith, smackdown."

A lone rock came flying right at Shroomish. It came from right behind him, he didn't have a chance. Shroomish grunted as the rock made contact. My mushroom buddy collapsed, leaving the score tied one to one.

"Shroomish, are you okay?"

"I am not fine, I can't keep going." He said with his face in the dirt.

"What did he say?" He asked me, mirroring what happened the last time he asked.

 _"Not fine, really not fine,"_ I told him as I winced in sympathy.

"Yeah, I figured. Shroomish, return." Shroomish sighed as he was called back into his pokéball.

"Shroomish is unable to battle. Roxanne and Anorith win."

"So what now Brook? Risk sending in Vimilky who's already tired and try to save you for the last fight? Or send you in and hope that you still have enough energy for the fight afterward?"

We looked at each other, both of us silently debating with ourselves over what to do.

 _"Send Milk in, bug beats me,"_ I said finally.

"You pretty much read my mind," Nikki said as he unclipped Milk's pokéball. "Plus, steel and fairy beat bug. Go Vimilky!"

"Good luck Milk," I cheered as Vimilky came out of her pokéball, a bit shaky but standing tall. "Win, for Shroomish's sake."

"Thanks, I got this." She said as she flexed her muscles.

"Saving your Ralts for last?" The gym leader asked Nikki.

"Pretty much." Nikki admitted, "You ready to do this?"

"Of course, Anorith, use smackdown."

Another rock like the one that took out Shroomish came flying out of the rocky terrain. But for some reason, this one was way slower than the last one.

"Vimilky, block it."

"With pleasure," Milk said as she swung her upper jaw forward, placing it between herself and the rock. The stone bounced off Milk's jaw with a harmless pinging sound. "That's the best you got?"

Even if I couldn't understand what Anorith was saying, the lack of communication obviously didn't go both ways. The bug chittered something in response that I imagined was probably something like 'not even close.'

"Looks like I need to change things up a bit," The gym leader commented. "Anorith, use water gun,"

A stream of water blasted out from a spot in the rocks.

"Vimilky, block it again!" Milk brought her jaw up in front of her again, the water splashing her and everything around her on impact. The pressure from the water was strong, and when I saw her knees buckle for a moment, I was worried that she might go down. She didn't though, managing to stay standing strong in the face of the water.

After a few moments, the water subsided and I raised an eye at Nikki's smile.

"Thanks for giving away your position! Vimilky, use iron head!"

Milk ran towards the source of the water, her jaw shining bright.

"This is for Shroomish you little shrimp!" Milk yelled as she swung her jaw downwards. I heard a screeching sound as the Anorith emerged from the rock, still covered in the orange spores.

"That's what you get," Vimilky put her foot down on top of Anorith, pinning him in place.

"Anorith is unable to battle. Nicholas Maple and Vimilky win,"

"Impressive, you've got me down to my last pokémon," The gym leader brought out a pokéball and recalled Anorith.

Milk jumped off before looking upwards towards where the sky would have been if it hadn't been for that pesky ceiling. "Shroomish, did you see that from up there?"

I bowed my head in solidarity.

"We did it Shroomish," I said in a whisper meant only for him. "Rest easy my Mushroom Buddy,"

"Do I even want to know what the two of you are talking about?" Nikki said with a worried look on his face.

"Shroomish avenged, he rests in peace now," I explained to him telepathically.

"What are… you two I swear. He's not dead! He's right here," He unclipped his pokéball and pointed to it. I groaned as I tried to not look at it.

Nikki rolled his eyes before seeing Milk. "Oh for the love of, Vimilky, stop pretending that Shroomish is dead. Also, return you did a good job."

Milk groaned and tried to look away as Nikki unclipped her pokéball and recalled her.

"Well, you certainly have some… interesting pokémon," The gym leader said politely.

"Are they always like this?"

"Pretty much."

May and Laura's chatter aside, this was going pretty well.

"Well, you only have one last pokémon to face," She took out her last pokéball and held it up dramatically. "Let's see how you do."

She tossed the pokéball into the arena and I had to say, I was not ready for what came out.

They had blue stone-like skin and a large red beak, nose, thing. Its body was rough and looked like it had been hewed out of stone, being covered in straight lines. All in all, the strangest pokémon that I had fought yet.  
"You ready to do this Brook?"

I flashed my trainer a smile and got ready to jump forward.

 _"Born ready,"_ I explained as I jumped and boosted forward into the arena, landing on top of a stone pillar and crossing my arms.

"You look tough," I admitted, "I'm still going to win though."

"Nosepass, use thunderwave,"

The battle started with a flash of lightning that surrounded the rock bird in a ring.

"Brook, get ready to dodge," I nodded my arms pointed downwards, ready to boost and get me out of there. There was a loud crack, and the wave of lightning came right at me. Lucky for me, they had made the mistake of making the wave wide and low. If I couldn't avoid it by going over it, I would have been done right there.

Of course, that was no issue for me.

I opened myself to the sea of power around me and unleashed my psychic power out of my arms. I sailed right over the wave, laughing at the open jaw and wide eyes of the gym leader.

"Well, that's new, never seen a Ralts do that before,"

"Well we are full of surprises, Brook use confusion." I aimed downwards, shooting off a volley of confusions at the stone bird.

"Nosepass, endure through it." The Stone bird knelt down and folded itself up as much as they could. While they wouldn't help to protect them from the blasts of colored air, it would make them a smaller target. Not only that but by folding in they made it harder to hit their inner parts.

Did that mean that those inner sections were more vulnerable to damage? I may have just found myself a trick. Now I just had to find a way to tell that to Nikki.

Now how did I put that in as little words as possible?

I'd figure it out later. For now, I had to focus on landing. I aimed downwards to slow my fall as the volley reached the stone bird.

The blasts exploded on contact, a few of them hitting the area around the stone bird and kicking up a storm of dust. I couldn't see what had happened to my opponent, something that I was not happy about.t.

"Nosepass, use rock throw,"

"Brook dodge!"

A large stone came flying out of the dust cloud. I screeched in alarm as I pointed both of my arms to the side and boosted out of the way of the rock. The small burst of wind that I made blew away the rest of the dust, revealing the stone bird. They were a bit scratched up but looked fine for the most part.

"Well then, Nosepass, use rock tomb as soon as she lands." Nosepass, as I figured the stone bird was called I guess, jumped up slightly and landed with a stomp. From up here, I could see the tremor run through the ground towards where I was going to land.

Nope, not happening. I aimed downwards and boosted far away from the rising stone prison. Those rocks looked like it hurt when it caught milk, and I didn't have metal skin. I did not need that in my life.

"Keep those rock tombs coming, That Ralts can't stay in the air forever,"

"So that's your game," Nikki grimaced as Nosepass jumped and another tremor ran through the ground. "Brook, stay airborne until I can come up with something. Take potshots when you can, but prioritize dodging."

"Sounds good," I said as I boosted again. "Think fast please,"

I wasn't just asking because I didn't feel like fighting. While my reserves were pretty good, especially since all I was doing was boosting with confusion, but they weren't limitless.

Nosepass jumped and sent two more rock tombs when I first started to feel a slight drain on my reserves. All of the boosts and the occasional confusion when I could fit them in were starting to wear on me.

"Nikki, plan!"

"I'm thinking." I heard Nikki mutter something under his breath and take a short gasp. I glanced back and saw a gleam in his eye. Looks like we had a plan.

Nosepass slammed into the ground again sending another tremor through the arena floor. I aimed, ready to boost once more.

"Brook, boost towards the ground towards the dead center of where the tomb will be,"

"Are you insane?" I told him even as I raised my arms and sent myself hurling towards the ground. I really hoped that this plan had a part two and that Nikki just hadn't lost his mind.

"Now, use the same trick you used on those Chinchou."

Trick what trick?

I landed on the ground as the rocks around me started to rise around me. I flashbacked to the fight in the swamp as the rocks closed in on me. The only big tick that I could think of was when I tricked them into thinking that I had gotten hit and teleported when they couldn't see… Oh, I saw the plan now.

I waited until the very last moment, the stone walls around me right about to trap me in. I shifted so that one of the rising stone pillars blocked from view and formed a path through the sea of power around the arena.

That large stone behind Nosepass but out of view of the gym leader would work just fine.

I made the teleport and held back a gasp. I was getting better at those, but it still took a bit out of me.

"Looks like your plan backfired," I heard the gym comment from my hiding spot. "But you still look confident, even with your pokémon trapped.

"Are you so sure about that?"

"What are you planning?"

"Brook give Nosepass the strongest confusion you can manage."

"With pleasure," I said both aloud and telepathically as I jumped up from out of my hiding spot and took aim with both hands. I tried something new this time though, something that I had been practicing via the target range in pokéball. Instead of sending two strong confusions though each of my hands, I allowed the psychic energy coming from each hand to mix together into a single mass.

It was almost half my size, so it was going to leave a mark.

"Take," I pulled my arms back. "This!" I slammed both palms into the ball of psychic energy, sending a meteor of force barreling towards Nosepass.

"Nosepass, get ready," The gym leader tried to say, but it was way too late. The blast hit Nosepass at full force, the stone bird just barely starting to fold in on itself to defend against the hit.

They careened back, the blow managing to push it back. I landed on top of the rock that I had been hiding behind as Nosepass tried to get up.

"Keep it up Brook," I raised my arm took aim, ready to keep the pressure mounted.

"Nosepass, use thunder wave," I clicked my tongue as the electric bands appeared around Nosepass. They had upgraded from the singular ring to four bands that went horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.

"Brook, boost out of the way,

No reason to tell me twice. I took the energy I had already gathered and instead used it to boost upwards. Nosepass got to their feet just as the bands went outwards. I aimed between two of them and then tucked and rolled through, the edge of the bands getting close enough for me to feel a slight tingling sensation.

"Alright then Nosepass, use block."

Nosepass glowed red as the air around us took a weird turn.

"What, what is that," Nikki asked a question which, honestly, I wanted answered too.

"Block, a move that creates a field that prevents pokémon from escaping. While it's usually used to prevent a trainer from recalling their pokémon, it can also disrupt teleportation. Now, Nosepass, use rock tomb."

We were back to this game. I couldn't land and now I couldn't teleport past the blocking field. So I stayed in the air biding my time.

Or at least, that's what I thought was going to happen. And for a while, I was right. Nosepass and I fell into a rhythm of confusion powered boosts and rock tombs.

And then the rhythm got broken.

"Nosepass use rock throw," I'd gotten so used to avoiding the rock tombs by boosting away from them, that I'd started getting sloppy and predictable with my boosts. So when Nosepass launched a rock at me, I couldn't do anything as it hit me dead on and sent me to the ground.

"Brook!"

"Nosepass finish this with rock tomb,"

I watched as Nosepass jumped and slammed hard on the ground.

The tremor was harder to see from ground level. I wondered why that bothered me so much.

The stone prison rose above me, and this time I had no easy way out of the situation. It was too cramped to boost out and the barrier kept me from teleporting like last time. I glanced over at Nikki who was watching with worry.

"Brook, burst out of there!"

Okay so maybe I, did have an easy way out of this. I pushed myself up against one of the walls that were closing in on me and reached in deep.

I was getting better at using this strange power inside of me. I liked to think that I was even getting closer to turning it into a real attack. For now though?

I gathered the power, allowing it come to me. I held it for as long as I could, feeling the strain as the power threatened to break free at any moment.

For now, what I had would do.

I unleashed the stored power allowing it to run wild as a much larger explosion then the kind I made when I first started out. The force of the blast sent the rock prison around me flying away everywhere.

Including towards Nikki.

"Woah!" He let out as a chunk of stone flew past him. "Brook!"

"Sorry," I said as the rock chunks hit Nosepass. Wait, why was I apologizing? It was his plan to burst in the first place.

"I have to say, your skills as a trainer are pretty good. To have Nosepass on the ropes like this without a type advantage, well I don't remember the last time that happened."

The gym leader spoke the truth. Well, the part about Nosepass being on the rocks at least. I had no clue about the rest of it but Nosepass looked worn down at this point. Between the pot shots and the strong confusion I had landed, I needed maybe one more strong confusion to finish this.

But to be fair, that one rock throw had taken a lot out of me. Nosepass wasn't the only one that was one good hit away from going down.

"Nosepass, finish this fight, use rock tomb, full power."

I gulped as Nosepass jumped high in the air, higher than they had before. The stone bird stuck their wings out and started to spin. They descended downwards like a screw, creating a small earthquake when they hit the ground.

Instead of the singular tremor from before, a flurry of tremors swarmed outwards. The fasted ones landed charged pretty far from me, making large spikes in a ring around me that reached up and met in the center. A stone cage, the perfect thing to contain a slippery pokémon like me.

"Brook use tele… wait no that won't work," Nikki grit his teeth in frustration.

I could have burst out, but I was pretty sure that both Nikki and I knew that it would have taken the rest of my reserves.

Another smaller ring of stone rose up around me. I gulped as the walls started to close in on me. There had to be a way out of this.

"Brook," I let out a sigh of relief. Nikki must have come up with a plan. "Block only prevents you from teleporting through it."

How in the world was that going to… oh, I saw.

"Leave it to me," I told him as I got ready to pull this off.

"Then let them have it Brook!" Nikki yelled as I heard Laura and May cheer from the sidelines. I tried to clear the chatter from my mind as I focused on opening a path through the sea of power between me and where I wanted to go.

Nikki was right, block kept me from teleporting through it to safety. Good thing I wasn't.

"Hi," I said plainly as I looked upwards at Nosepass. Instead of teleporting past the field, I had instead teleported within it. Specifically, I had teleported to the spot right in front of Nosepass's feet.

I did the same trick I did before, using both hands to charge confusions and them combining them into one. "You're done!" I screamed as I pushed the blast of psychic energy up into the stone bird. He had no time to fold himself up like last time, this time he took the full brunt of the hit.

I sent him flying, and when he hit the ground, he didn't get back up.

"Nosepass is unable to battle, Nicholas Maple and Brook the Ralts win. Gym Leader Roxanne has no more pokémon, as such the challenger, Nicholas Maple wins."

"We did it Brook," Nikki said as he took the field and picked me up and back onto his shoulder.

 _"We did it",_ I told him, happy that the battle was finally over. I wasn't sure why but it felt like we had been fighting for a week straight.

"Congratulations," Roxanne said as she walked over to us, what looked like a stone badge in her hand. "As the gym leader of Rustboro city, I find you qualified for the Stone Badge." She said as she handed Nikki the Badge.

"Thank you," He looked over to me. "Two down, six to go Brook. You feel like you're ready for the long haul?"

 _"Of course I am,"_ I told him as May and Laura walked off the sidelines and walked over to congratulate us.


	9. Episode 9

**Episode 9: A journey through Rusturf**

* * *

"What are you guys even doing every night?" Milk asked me as we sat around the unlit fire pit. "I mean, for the rest of us it just looks like the two of you are just sitting across from each other in silence."

I opened my mouth to argue, only to realize that she kind of had a point. Nikki and I really did look like we weren't doing a lot. At least, not to anyone without psychic powers. A category that I would have placed Nikki in up until last night.

Every night since we left the city behind, Nikki and I had spent a good portion of the night trying to unlock his psychic power. Mostly by speaking to him telepathically and hoping that he could figure out how to speak back.

While we hadn't made any noticeable progress for the first two days, we had made a breakthrough last night. After giving Nikki another telepathic message, Nikki had concentrated and I was sure I heard the barest hint of a whisper. A whisper that sounded a lot like Nikki's voice.

Sure I couldn't tell what the heck he said, and it was like a single word long, Nikki had managed to unlock his telepathy! I was sure of it, I had made sure to keep a close eye on Nikki's lips and those things hadn't moved a muscle.

Nikki himself had been unsure, thinking that I had just imagined it.

"Hey we made some good progress," I protested in spite of the rolled eyes that Milk was giving me. She had been in the 'you imagined it camp' that had formed yesterday alongside Nikki, Laura, and Doduo.

At least Oddish and Shroomish believed in the me who believed in Nikki.

"Listen Brook, just because you're excited to see Nikki unlock psychic powers, and wow that still feels strange to say out loud. What was I saying?"

"Something about me being excited,"

"Oh right, thanks. Just because you're excited to see Nikki unlock psychic power, doesn't mean that you can get ahead of yourself."

"Fine," I said as I crossed my arms and leaned back. Not too far back of course, didn't want to fall back and look like an idiot. A problem that Milk didn't have to worry about as she had planted her other jaw in the ground behind her and was using it as a backrest. "But I can't wait until Nikki and I are having full conversations in our heads."

Milk narrowed her eyes and I started getting worried that this was going to turn into a thing.

The sound of a portal opening behind me interrupted us, giving me a perfect excuse to change the subject.

"Oh hey Shroomish," I said as I tossed my head back.

Shroomish blinked before looking around our new dwelling.

"Still can't believe we got this place. It's going to take a while to get used to this kind of thing,"

This kind of thing being our new 'common room', as Nikki called it. Apparently, that crazy looking girl that took Nikki's pokédex had added a feature that allowed all of Nikki's pokémon to interact.

So basically the three of us all had a cool clubhouse now.

"So what are you two doing with this place?" Shroomish asked. Made sense, he had used this place the least.

"I've mostly been using it for endurance training." Milk rubbed her legs, almost making me giggle. I had walked in on Milk running laps around the room. She hadn't noticed me when I came in and I managed to keep myself out of her sight until she stopped.

The look on her face when she realized that I had been there the whole time had been hilarious.

"I've been just doing my normal training," I explained, "This place has some more options than my own pokéball, so it's pretty fun."

"I see,"

We all sat around the unlit fire pit for a little bit before Milk broke the silence.

"Hey Brook,"

"Yeah?"

"What does your training look like? Now that I think about it, I've never actually seen it,"

"I guess I can show you guys," I jumped off the seat and walked over to one of the walls. The room responded to my thoughts as moving targets appeared on the wall.

I opened myself up to the sea of power around me. The power around here was typical for a calm forest like this one. That is, strangely chaotic at first glance yet orderly when one saw from a bigger perspective.

The power flowed into me through my crests, filling me to the brim and activating my internal reserves.

I took aim and fired off confusion after confusion at the moving targets. I was getting pretty good at this little exercise, I barely missed any of targets this time around.

Once the last of the moving targets got blasted to pieces, it got replaced by a large boulder. I focused my power into both arms and then fused the two clumps into a lone ball in front of me. I pushed it forward as the force pushed the boulder back.

"Impressive," Shroomish commented as he waddled up to the boulder. He inspected the mark that the last confusion had made and nodded.

"Yeah, really impressive," Milk said with a smug look on her face. "So, how long until Nikki can do this too?"

* * *

"I can't believe that you're still actually wearing that, it's been three days already."

"Hey I, think I'm making some good progress. At least I think I am." I said as I touched the psychic necklace that I had worn since we had set out from Rustboro.

It had been three days since we left Rustboro behind us. After beating Roxanne, I had gone back to the pokécenter and spent the rest of the day waiting for everyone to recover. I still remembered the conversation I had with May later that night before she set off back to Littleroot.

"Sorry about before," She said after making sure that the two of us were alone. "Should have been more subtle about telling you."

"May, what has you so freaked out, what do you know."

"I can't go into detail here, but Nikki, I need you to do me a giant favor."

"What is it," I asked, despite a part of me dreading an answer.

"Don't trust anyone,"

She left, her message clear. Later when Laura had asked me what we had talked about, I told her,

"Personal family stuff, nothing to worry about."

Of course, that particular lie didn't mean that I wasn't going to contact May's dad the second I got to Verdanturf Town. With any luck, he would know what was going on with May. And even If he didn't at least he would know and would be able to keep an eye on her.

Not only that, but Wally was waiting for us. I had contacted Brendan right before leaving Rustboro, and Wally was apparently waiting for me to help out with Brook's empathy sense.

Of course, before I could do any of that, I needed to make it to Verdanturf. We had left Rustboro behind us and after three days of walking, we were almost to Rusturf Tunnel. Once we did, it would take a few hours to go through before we emerged on the other side.

"Okay if you say so," Laura said, looking unimpressed and unconvinced. "So how's the new pokédex?"

I reached into my new dex holder and took out my now heavily modified pokédex. Not only was the software on it brand new and accurate for once, but it had tons of new features. Some of it, like the pokémon sketcher, I wasn't expecting to get much use out of.

Now the portable pokécenter on the other hand…

" _How long until we stop for the day?"_ Brook said from the new common room that she shared with Vimilky and Shroomish. She sounded steamed about something.

I held up my pokédex so that it would be a little easier for Brook to see me.

"Might take a while. There's a small inn at the entrance of the tunnel. If we keep going at this pace, we should make it right after dark,"

" _That long?"_

"Hey no complaining. You never know, maybe the change in scenery will help in our practice,"

" _I guess,"_ I could somehow tell she was pouting. _"Well then hurry up!"_

I shook my head and returned the pokédex to its holder.

"Brook getting impatient?" Laura smiled and leaned forward.

"How'd you guess?" I replied with a sigh.

"I have my ways," She rolled her eyes. "Plus it's either that or you lost your mind and started talking to your pokédex."

"Well that wouldn't be too crazy," I told her as I remembered something I read a few weeks ago. "I heard that there was some lab somewhere that was working on a way to house a porygon in a dex as a form of A.I. Something about giving the dex the ability to adapt and making it more responsive."

"That sounds pretty cool, they have any idea when that's going to be available to the public," Laura said with a gleam in her eye.

"No idea. I think the article implied that this it was one of those dex models that was going to stay a research tool," I held up my hands. "So there's a chance that the answer is never."

Laura pouted, making an expression that probably matched the one on Brook's face.

A little while later, our quite forest stroll was interrupted by what sounded like someone either fighting or training. I gave Laura a look that she replied to with a shrug.

We approached slowly, careful to not be noticed.

"Okay rose, let's try this one more time!" We heard a voice say followed by a cute sounding meow. We poked our heads out of the bush just as the voice said, "Rose, use charge beam.

A rush of electricity sailed right above us missing us.

And when I said miss, I meant such a close shave that both of our hair was standing on end.

"Oh my gosh, are you two okay?" A girl my age wearing pink overalls ran over to us looking pretty guilty. "I am so sorry, I was just out here practicing with my Skitty here," she pointed downwards to the little pink cat who was trying to not look at us for some reason.

"Its fine," I told her as I tried to tame my hair. "It's not like you hit us or anything."

"Yeah, no offense, but that could have gone a lot worse for us," Laura pointed out as she tried to fix her own hair. A trial that she was having quite a bit of an issue with.

"I am just so sorry, please forgive me."

"It's fine, uh, what's your name?" I asked, getting ready to make my move.

"Oh, it's Carol."

"Good to meet you Carol, my name's Nicholas and this is Laura." I gave a mental fist pump at finally being able to introduce myself with my real name."

"So what are you doing out here anyway?" Laura asked, looking at the Skitty with curiosity.

The girl suddenly seemed to inflate with pride as she stood up straight and puffed her chest out.

"Rose and I are out here training to fight some rowdy wild pokémon who made the mistake of thinking that my family's inn would make a fun place to cause havoc."

I thought back to the travel guide to the area on my pokénav. Specifically the part about campsites and other rest locations.

"Would this be the Rusturf inn at the mouth of the tunnel?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Her eyes narrowed and she took a step back.

"Because it's the only inn between Rustboro and Verdanturf," I pointed out. She pursed her lips together and took a step forward, canceling out the step back from before. "We were actually on our way there now. We were hoping to make it there before dark,"

"Oh, so your customers." She clapped her hands together as her Skitty suddenly jumped onto her shoulder. "Rose and I were pretty much done training for the day anyway. I can you guys to the inn myself if you want. I even know a shortcut."

" _I have a bad feeling about this, and I don't know why,"_ Brook commented to me telepathically.

"Well if you think so then," I uncrippled her pokéball from my breast pocket and clicked the side button as Carol asked Laura who I was talking to. Laura just told her to wait and see as the pokéball expanded. There was a clicking sound as Brook was transferred from the common room back into her own pokéball.

I clicked it and Brook appeared on my shoulder.

"Why don't you walk with us then?"

" _I have a made a terrible mistake,"_ Brook said as she starred off in the distance.

"Oh a Ralts, those are pretty rare," Carol beamed, "And they're so cute too,"

"Thanks," I told her as I rubbed the top of Brook's head with my finger. "She was actually my starter."

The girl's Skitty noticed the new pokémon and meowed something at Brook. Brook then replied with a series of trills and squeaks. What followed was a quick conversation between the two that left all three of us trainers in the dark.

Finally, the conversation came to an end, and not a happy one if the fearful look on Brook's face was any indication.

"So what was that about?"

" _The girl gets lost easily. We follow her shortcut and make it at midnight."_

"Hey, are you actually talking to your Ralts?" Carol said sounding mystified. "Is she telling you what she was talking to my Skitty about?"

"Yes," I said simply. "It's something a lot of psychic types can do with their trainers. The really strong ones can even talk to all humans and teach their trainers how to talk psychically too."

"That's so cool." Carol squeed. "So… what were they talking about? Rose here always says something to the pokémon of the trainers I meet and I've always wondered what it what that she was saying."

I glanced down at Brook who glared at me.

" _Tell her, I want to get to the inn early."_

"Apparently your Skitty warned her that you get lost super easily and we'll get to the Inn at midnight if we follow you."

"Rose!" She exclaimed at her Skitty who looked like she was on the verge of laughter. "Is that what you always tell everyone when you meet them?"

The Skitty just gave up and burst out into laughter.

Carol puffed up her cheeks and huffed, looking away from her pokémon.

"She's exaggerating," Carol claimed. "I can get you to the inn no problem."

" _Don't do it guys!"_ Brook panicked.

"Don't worry Brook. I mean think about it. She lives in the inn so she has to know the local area," I explained rationally. "I'm sure that her Skitty's just messing around."

"Yeah, I'm sure we'll be fine," Laura said.

"Oh thank you guys," Carol said with a sniff. "I promise you guys that we'll make it to the inn with time to spare."

* * *

Four hours had passed since we had met Carol and Rose. In these four hours, I had learned one thing.

Rose had in no way exaggerated when she said that Carol would get us lost on the way to the inn.

"Are we there yet?" I asked Nikki for the third time since the sun had gone down.

"That is a great question Brook. Just give me a second to ask our guide." Nikki said as he walked up to Carol who had heard the entirety of Nikki's half of the conversation. "So my Ralts wants to know…"

"We're almost there," Carol said for the fifth time now, sounding increasingly nervous.

"Have we passed by that tree before?" Laura said in a cheeky voice. "Because I'm pretty sure that we've passed by that tree before."

"Okay, now you're just messing with…"

She was cut off by the sound of loud screaming coming from up ahead.

"These punks again?" Carol said as she broke into a run.

" _Well,"_ I told Nikki. _"What are you waiting for?"_

"Right," Nikki broke out into a run, Laura following right after him. I narrowed my eyes and got ready to jump into action.

Carol stopped right past the break in the trees. I saw Rose jump off and ran forward. Nikki reached the spot next to Carol and we both saw chaos.

The good news was that we had reached the inn. The bad news was that the inn was getting swarmed by what looked like a gang of small screaming pink pokémon.

"Would you get out of here?" Rose yelled as she slammed into one of them.

"It's Rose," One of them pointed at her.

"We can take her!"

"Yeah, let's take her down,"

Three of the pink Pokémon charged at Rose, looking ready to attack.

First Milk doesn't believe me when I tell her about Nikki's progress. Then we get sidetracked by Carol getting us lost. Now we were getting interrupted by these idiots causing a huge mess. All in all, I had to say…

"I am done with these freaking distractions!" I boosted off Nikki's shoulder before he could say anything. My eyes locked onto the three pink pokémon attacking Rose and took aim. Three psychic blasts shot out from my arm and three psychic blasts hit home.

"Oh you don't have to bother, I have this handled,"

"Anyone else wants some!" I yelled as I pointed my arms around at the gang that was starting gather around Rose and I.

"Nicholas, you don't have to help us." I head Carol plead. "This is our inn and you're soon to be paying customers. Let us take care of this kind of thing."

I looked back and shot Nikki a glare.

" _Don't you dare take this from me,"_

"Carol, I don't think that's happening." He wisely said."

"Who's this kid?" One of the pink pokémon that I didn't attack asked another one next to it.

"No idea," the other replied. "Let's just take her down like we usually do with Rose."

The pink pokémon formed a half ring in front of me and breathed in, getting ready to scream at me.

"Not today," I pointed downwards and boosted upwards just a blast of sound exploded out of them and towards me. They were pretty loud for such tiny things. Well, it's not like size was any indication of power. I mean, look at me.

I took aim at one of the pink pokémon in particular and open fired with all I had. The pink pokémon went flying back as I landed where he had been standing. I stretched my arms outwards and blasted both of the pink pokémon on either side of me.

"Rose," Carol said, sounding a bit shaky. "Use charge beam,"

I took note at which of the pink pokémon she was taking aim at and noticed that one of the idiots was running up from behind her.

"Oh no you don't!" I boosted towards him, shifting in the air so that I would collide into him feet first. The psychic boosted kick sent the pink pokémon to the floor. If he knew what was good for him, he wouldn't get back up.

"Carol, what is the meaning of this?" I heard an older human say as he approached with another human. "You know you shouldn't be making a guest help out with this kind of thing."

I ran up to another of the punks and blasted him with a confusion from point blank range. It helped that he had closed his eyes to protect them from the flash from Rose's charge beam.

"Actually, I think it might be best to just let her be," Nikki explained as I grabbed one of the pink pokémon by the ears and tried something new. I threw him over my shoulder and shot him right into one of his buddies. "I think she's working through some stuff."

By the time Rose and I were done, all eight of the screaming pokémon were on the floor, groaning in well-deserved pain.

"Looks like the new girl's pretty tough," One of the idiots said as he got to his feet. "Everyone, fall back for now!"

They all slowly got back to their feet and made a break for it.

"Yeah you all better run," I screamed as the small pink pokémon ran off into the woods. "We did pretty well, didn't we Rose?"

"You know you didn't have to step in right? I had it handled."

I walked up to Rose, purposefully getting into her personal space. The Skitty backed up a bit in response, so I put my hand on her shoulder to keep her still.

"Rose, this has been a long and annoying day and taking care of these idiots has been the best stress relief I could ask for."

"If you say so, but if these guys came back at some point during your stay, please allow Carol and I do deal with them."

"If I'm relaxed at the time, then sure."

"And if you're not?" I glanced over at Nikki who was busy talking to the older humans from before.

"I make no promises," I told Rose as I walked back over to Nikki.

* * *

Following Brook's enthusiastic handling of the inn's Whismur problem, Carol's parents had no issue with letting us stay at their inn.

After unpacking and enjoying a hot bath, we joined the family for dinner in a large dining room downstairs. I bit into and savored the stir-fry the family had made. It wasn't often that I got to stay in a real Inn like this, so I was going to take the chance to enjoy it.

"So how long have you guys had trouble with those Whismur?" Laura asked as she took a bite from her food.

"It's been happening for a while now actually," Carol explained as she set down some extra napkins for us. "A few weeks ago, someone or something managed to rile up and organize the Whismur from the nearby cave."

"Any idea on what it could be?" Laura asked again as I enjoyed my food and listen in on the conversation.

"My best guess is a weirdly smart Loudred or Exploud. Other than that, I have no idea."

"Carol, come help with the dishes," Carol's mother called from the kitchen.

"Yes Mom," She called back, "I'm going to leave you guys to enjoy your food. Just call if you need anything," She waved as she went back into the kitchens.

" _You thinking what I'm thinking?"_ Brook asked from the smaller table meant for pokémon next to our own. She was eating from a good spread of pokémon food, baked goods and veggies alongside Vimilky, Shroomish, Dodo, and Oddish.

"That it kind of reminds you of those Masquerain from the day we met?" I said in-between bites, "Yeah same here. I'll contact Brendan later tonight. Hopefully, he's found something out by now."

"Masquerain? What's that all about?"

"Oh right we never did tell you Brook and I met did we?"

" _Yeah, I don't think we ever told her,"_ Brook said as she chewed her food.

I suddenly realized another advantage to telepathic communication. I subtly sped up my eating to get to my psychic training just a little bit sooner.

We kept on eating as I told Laura the story of how Brook and I met. By the time we had had our fill of food, Laura was filled in on the story of how Brook and I met.

"A squad of wild Masquerain and now a gang of wild Whismur, something weird is going on in Hoenn," Laura commented. "Though I have to say, it was really brave of you to save Brook the way you did. Most people wouldn't have done the same,"

" _That's why you're the best!"_ Brook commented from the table.

"Thanks' Brook. So yeah that's the story of how Brook and I met." I told her as I put my plate forward, full to the brim. We let Carol know we were done and we were soon shooed out of the inn's dining room so that Carol could clean up.

With that all taken care off, we retreated to the common area next to the dining room. We had apparently appeared during a bit of an offseason, so most of the guest were already in their room. The only other person here was an older gentleman who sat in the corner reading a book while wearing a darkish suit.

In short what I would probably look like in forty years or so.

But cracks about my sense of style aside, it was time to train with Brook. It felt a little strange to have the pokémon training the trainer, but I had gotten used to it pretty quick.

Of course, if I said that the training being for psychic powers didn't help, I would be lying.

I picked Brook up before sitting down on the main couch. "You ready to do this?"

" _You know I am,"_ She responded as I set her down on the table in front of me. We both brought our legs up so that we sat crossed legged. We looked into each other's eyes, synching our breathing.

" _Close your eyes,"_ I followed Brook's instruction. _"The link I'm making between us is stronger than the one I normally make. Try to follow it back to me."_

I pictured the room around us, the unimportant parts blurred out. And by that, I meant everything and everyone but Brook and I. The two of us were the only things that still looked clear. Between the two of us was what looked like a green road. I floated down and landed on the green road. Behind me was a giant version of myself, still sitting on the couch. In front, was a… much larger version of Brook.

This was how we normally did our training. The bridge wasn't real, I knew that. It was a metaphor given shape, a representation of the telepathically link that Brook opened between us whenever she spoke to me. I was still far from being able to forge my own connections, but learning to use Brook's connection to send my own message would be a good first step.

The trick, of course, was that the connection Brook made was already unstable as it was. Sending a message both ways was a good way to make it even more unstable.

I still hadn't figured out how to get the message across before the connection collapsed. Last night I had gotten pretty close, but I still didn't make it.

In my hand was the message I wanted to give Brook. It took the form of a small sphere of light.

" _You're getting closer, I can feel it,"_ Brook's voice came from all around me. However, it was loudest from the direction of the larger Brook.

I walked towards Brook on the green road. But as I walked, the road around me began to crumble. When I made it a quarter way the guard rails crumbled away. At halfway, the edges of the road began leaving. By three quarters, all I had left was a thin strip. I had to walk by putting one foot in front of the other, the one wide road now a tightrope.

Brook was just in arm's reach, all I had to do was get a little closer. Just a little closer and I would be done.

But it too far, but maybe I could still get my message across. I looked down at the sentiment I was holding in my hand and threw it as hard as I could at Brook.

" _I heard that!"_ Brook called out. _"You tried to say something that starts with a 'Br-' sound right?"_

I had. The message I had tried to get across was just a single word. Brook's name, it felt like a fitting first message.

" _Let's try that again,"_ She said as the bridge reformed. I stood in front of my giant self, the road around us fully repaired. I formed the message in my hand once more.

Walking hadn't done me any good. The bridge had broken away far too quickly. No, I had to try something different. Something a bit faster.

I held the message to close to me and took off running.

The bridge around me started to break away like before but I was advancing much faster.

It felt strange, running in the mindscape. No matter how hard I ran, how fast I moved my legs, I felt the same. My legs never tired, and my breath never labored. I mean, I guess it made sense. This wasn't my real body, so of course, it didn't have its real limitations.

I could do anything…

I ran even faster, picking up the pace. I was going at speeds that I had never managed in reality, speeds that I couldn't achieve.

The large Brook laid before me and this time I didn't need to throw the message. I collided into Brook, home free. I laughed as the message dissolved into Brook, and the world faded away as she broke the connection.

" _Brook, you picked my name,"_ She said emotionally. Even if she had managed to hide her state in her mental voice, her face betrayed her.

Her cheeks were red, matching her eyes which had the barest hint of tears. She had one hand over her mouth, blocking some but not all of the little squeaks she was making.

"Well," I started, "Looks like I'm a psychic now."

" _That's right,"_ Brook told me. _"But you still have a long way to go,"_

"So I'm confused, did they do like, anything at all."

"Apparently. Most of the psychic training has been like this, to be honest. An extended period of silence followed by the two of the acting like something really deep and meaningful happened."

Both Brook and I jumped in surprise. I had forgotten that we had had an audience and judging by her reaction, so had Brook.

Off to the side, Carol and Laura had apparently been watching us the whole time.

"So how did it go this time? You make any progress?" Laura asked, sounding bored.

"Actually, yeah I did," I told her as I subtly reached downwards for my pokédex. "I even managed to send Brook a telepathic message."

I had no idea why May's friend had installed a camera on my pokédex, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to use it. I brought the dex up just in time to catch Laura's reaction.

In the photo, her eyes were wide and her mouth was gaping open. It was the exact reaction I had been hoping to catch.

"No way!" Carol leaned in, her eyes sparkling. "Did you really manage to talk to your Ralts? That's so cool!"

"Yeah, I mean all I managed to get across was her name. I still have a long way to go but yeah, I managed to talk to Brook telepathically."

And there it was, I had said the words out loud and now they were real. I had talked to Brook telepathically, I was a psychic.

I'm a psychic?

I'm a psychic.

I'm a psychic!

"Okay we get it," Laura said while holding back a laugh. "You're a psychic, you don't have to keep saying it like that."

My cheeks lit up. I hadn't realized I had been saying that out loud.

"Sorry about that," I said as I tried to look away.

"It's fine, I'd probably be freaking out too," Laura reassured me.

Carol, who apparently had the free time to talk to us, had joined us while I had been busy training with Brook. They had spent most of their time just talking according to them.

"By the way, there's something I've been wondering," I said as I set my drink down on the table. "Rose is a Skitty, a normal type right?"

"That's right," Carol said as she patted Rose's head. The Skitty preened under the affection and let out a spoiled purr.

"Well then, how can she use charge beam?"

"Oh I got my hands on a charge beam Technical Machine," I rolled my eyes. Carol had given me an answer, but not the one I wanted or meant.

"That's not what I meant. I mean yeah, you used a Technical Machine to teach her but I what I meant was how does a normal type use an electric attack?"

"That is a good question," Laura looked up and put her hand on her chin. "Most Electric types have the ability to generate and store electrical charges because they have special organs to store them. And well, Skitty doesn't really have one of those. At least, I don't think they do."

"Oh, well I'm not really completely sure, but I think it has something to do with static electricity in her fur or something."

"Static electricity?" That sounded insane. "How the heck does static electricity make a giant laser beam?"

"No idea," Carol shrugged while giving me smug grin. "But hey if it works, it works. Right Rose?"

Rose meowed something that made Brook chuckle.

I raised an eyebrow at Brook.

"Do I even want to know what she said?" Brook laughed and shook her head.

"You know," Carol stopped petting Rose and narrowed her eyes at the cat instead. "Now I'm not sure I want to know what my pokémon are saying."

"I would say it's worth it," I said as I rubbed the top of Brook's head. "Want to try one more time before bed?"

" _You know it,"_ Brook gave me infectious grin. _"We'll make a psychic out of you if it's the last thing I do!"_

I crossed my leg and closed my eyes as Brook forged the connection between us once more.

* * *

The morning after our night in the inn found Nikki and I outside by the side off the building. In the distance I could see the entrance to the tunnel that we would be going through later today.

We were finally going to be able to talk to The friend that Brendan had that had said that he would help me with my empathy sense. Nikki had even called him earlier today to let him know that we would be arriving later that day. Apparently, there was a small chance that he would be able to head into the tunnel to meet us halfway through.

Of course, that was for later. For now, Nikki and I were going to spend some time to try to learn a new move.

Magical leaf was weird move, at least for me. It was a grass type move that was powered by psychic energy. I reached into the sea of power and linked to the trees around me. I pulled a small swarm of leaves and floated them in the air above me. I allowed the sea of power to flood into the leaves, making them glow green.

I brought my arms down.

All of the leaves turned so that the pointy ends faced forward. The leaves shoot forward, impaling themselves into the spot of the ground that I had aimed at. After a split-second, the leaves burst with a small blast.

"Nice job Brook," Nikki congratulated me as he walked over to inspect the damage. I shut off my connection to the sea and then followed after him.

The ground had been filled with a ton of shallow holes from the leaves. It looked like I had this move done pat.

"Looks like you did some damage Brook. This move checker thing is pretty handy." Nikki said as he read something off his new pokédex. "You sure you don't want to try and learn lucky chant? It looks like it could come in handy."

I shook my head. A move that makes me slightly luckier, what was the point of that? Better to just learn a ton of attacking moves. The only exception I made was for teleport, and I normally used that to get in position to use an attacking move anyway.

"You know a little bit of luck on our side wouldn't hurt," Nikki said as he grabbed a stick and started to smooth out the dirt. We had promised to leave the area mostly like how we left it. That meant cleaning up and smoothing out the dirk after we were done.

"You guys having a good time?" Nikki and I jumped as Carol suddenly appeared behind us. Our surprise must have in turn surprised her because she suddenly freaked out and covered her mouth with her hands.

"Oh I am so sorry, did I startle you two?"

"You did," Nikki admitted as he recovered. "Don't worry, it's fine. I'm okay."

Rose rolled her eyes at her trainer. "Well, you did come out here to ask them for a practice battle. At least you have the element of surprise figured out."

"A practice battle" I crossed my arms and gave Rose an intrigued eye. I leaned back and put on my usual confident smile. "Bring it on, I could use a bit of practice myself."

"What's going on Brook," Nikki asked, looking unprepared for a practice battle. Too bad, we were going to have one anyway.

" _Why don't you ask her that?"_ I said while laughing as I pointed towards Carol. The inn girl suddenly started blushing and gave Rose a dirty look.

"Okay, so Carol, what's going on?"

"I keep forgetting that Rose can pass stuff to your Ralts who can pass stuff to you," Carol sighed as she picked Rose off her shoulder. "I never noticed just how mouthy you are,"

"Hey, I may be mouthy, but you still wuve me," I had to stop myself from cringing from that line.

"I am so happy for and envious of that both of our humans didn't have to hear you say that," I deadpanned.

"So do I want to…?"

" _No, you don't,"_ I cut Nikki off before he could find out.

"So yeah I wanted to ask you for a quick practice battle if you aren't too busy of course." Carol finally explained.

"Sure I guess, but are you sure that you have the time?" I rolled my eyes as Nikki sandbagged.

"I have most of the early hours of the day free to myself. My parents don't really put me to work until around midday. Plus part of my chores is training Rose to deal with whatever issues the inn has to deal with,"

"You mean like the Whismur gang that was causing trouble yesterday?"

"That's right, and with how Brook handled them yesterday, I figured that Rose could really benefit from sparring with her."

Nikki couldn't really argue with that and soon enough we were looking across from each other on an open field of to the side of the inn.

"You two ready for this,"

"We were born ready," Rose meowed confidently

"Get ready because you guys are in for it now," Rose's trainer said, matching her confidence with her own. I liked it, gave me the feeling that I was in for a good match. "Mind if I make the first move?"

"Go right ahead," Nikki said as he dug his heel into the ground. "Brook, get ready to dodge whatever they throw at you,"

"Rose, start things off with a double slap!"

Rose charged at me as I stood in place, getting ready to boost out of the way. Rose dug her back foot and spun in place, her tail swinging right at me. The pink club like tail sailed through the air and I was suddenly struck by a stray thought.

I took a simple step to the side and leaned back as the tail swung above my head. Rose spun back sending her tail at me again, this time low to the ground. I simply jumped over it that time. Rose spun one final time and I did an overdramatic lean back to avoid it.

If this was the fastest Rose could go, there was no way for her to hit me with her move.

"Hey stop doing that," She whined as she stepped back.

"Nah, I don't think I will," I taunted.

"You're Skitty is kind of slow, you should work on that," Brook commentated as Rose growled at me.

"I'm sorry am I getting under your fur?" I asked Rose as I casually readjusted my green bandanna. It was an unneeded question, her bared teeth and lowered eyebrows told me all I needed to know.

"Not sure what she's saying, but don't let it get to you Rose," Carol said trying to get control of this battle. "Give her a tackle attack."

"With pleasure," Rose said as she charged right at me. I spread out my stance, and with only a little guilt, jumped up. I filliped forward and landed my hands on Rose's head. Before she could react, I pushed off and completed the flip, landing perfectly on my feet.

"Feel like trying that again?"

"You are really annoying to fight against you know that?" Rose told me.

"Alright Brook, enough defense. Show them a confusion."

"Rose, dodge," I took aim, activating my psychic powers for the first time for the entire fight. I let out a bolt of psychic power. The green-tinted distortion flew through the air towards Rose, who jumped to the side. I readjusted my aim and fired a second one at where Rose would land.

The bolt detonated on Rose, sending her flying.

"Rose!" Carol cried out as Rose skidded across the ground. "Are you okay?"

"I think I'm fine," Rose squeaked out, "Nothing hurts that bad,"

"Okay Rose, use charge beam,"

Rose started crackling with electricity all along her fur. She let out a cry as the electricity started forming into a ball in front of her.

"Brook, use confusion at full power!" I placed both of my arms out and channel energy into both arms. The power flowed into both arms and then fused into a single sphere.

Rose shot out a blast of electricity as I pushed my own blast forward.

The two forces met in the center, clashing for a little bit before the electricity split as my bolt of psychic power forced its way through. Rose didn't even have time to dodge this time. She took the hit and flew back at Carol.

"Rose!" Carol caught Rose and then cradled her in her arms.

"Okay, so now some stuff hurts that bad," Rose grumbled as she nestled into Carol's arms.

"I think we're done here," Nikki said as he scratched his cheek. "She okay?"

Rose pocked her head out let out a melodramatic cry.

"Oh, the pain, the agony, everything is unbearable pain. Carol, I was so happy that I was your pokémon. Please, move on and forget me," She suddenly collapsed in Carol's arms.

Carol, to her credit, just rolled her eyes.

"She's fine," she said. Looks like this wasn't the first time she had done something like this. "So how did we do?"

"Considering that Brook is my most powerful pokémon, pretty well," Nikki said generously. "I think your best path is to work on her speed. Is Rose had been fast enough to land those hits, this fight would have gone done completely differently."

I had to admit that Nikki had a point. For as much raw destructive power as I had at my fingertips, I still couldn't take much of a hit. During the fight with Nosepass, one rock throw had left me hanging on by a thread.

"Yeah if you got me with that tail, you might have been able to capitalize and take the win," I told Rose, who was still pretending to be dead. In spite of the fact that I could clearly see that her chest was still rising and falling.

We gave them a few more tips before heading back inside. Laura was ready to go and so were we. We ate a quick lunch, said our goodbyes and headed off to the Rusturf Tunnel.

* * *

Rusturf Tunnel was a new experience for me. I had never actually been inside a tunnel like this before. The closest I had gotten to was granite cave, and we had decided to go over that one instead.

"You know, it's a lot flatter and smoother then I thought it would be," I commented as I used the flashlight function of my pokédex.

"Well it is an artificial cave meant for travelers," Laura figured. "It'd be weirder if it wasn't all smooth and stuff."

"Yeah but this floor is perfectly leveled, like, how did they do that?"

" _Machines probably,"_ Brook said from her spot on my shoulder. _"That's how you humans usually do stuff,"_

"Okay yeah you both have a point," I admitted as I spotted something in the distance. Or better said a bunch of somethings. "What is that?" I said as I lifted my pokédex flashlight to illuminate what I expected to be a bunch of rocks.

It was not a bunch of rocks.

No instead the small shapes turned out to be the squad of Whismur that Brook had fought yesterday, plus some friends.

And by some friends, I meant that there was maybe triple to quadruple the number of Whismur plus a Loudred all in front of us.

"This could be trouble," I said aloud to no one in particular as the mob glared at us.

" _Yeah, I may actually get a little tired,"_ Brook boosted, but I could tell that it was a false bravado by her worried gaze.

The Loudred came forward, pushing their way through the crowd of Whismur. The larger pokémon started to say something before all the Whismur said something in unison.

"Translation?" I requested Brook,

" _He's mad we messed with his crew,"_

"But you're the only one who messed with his crew!"

" _How was I supposed to know that they had a full crew?"_

The Loudred yelled something else and again all of the Whismur called out in unison. They all started advancing as a group, crowding each other as they tried to squeeze through the narrow tunnel. The ones on the edges had it the roughest, their bodies getting pushed against the flat stone walls.

I suddenly got an idea. The wind was blowing away from us and towards the approaching mob and with how narrow this tunnel was, I had the perfect way to get through this. I reached down to my pocket and grabbed one of the pokéballs there.

"Shroomish, use stun spore on as many as you can," I said as I tossed the ball forward and Shroomish appeared on the stone floor in front of me. He pointed his head downwards as a cloud of orange spores approached the mob.

The ones in the front didn't stand a chance. The spores wafted over them, landing on their bodies and making a crackling sound on contact. The ones at the front of the mob were frozen in place, keeping the ones behind from advancing. Sure it would have been nice to paralyze all of them, but the group I got was fine.

"Okay Brook, now follow up with a confusion to send them packing," Brook jumped off my shoulder and held both of her hands out in front of her. I could see her horns glow green in the dim light of the cave as she formed that volleyball sized sphere that she'd taken to using recently.

Although with the way it collided into the group of Whismur, maybe a bowling ball would have been the better comparison. The Whismur at the front of the group went flying back, sending the rest of the group in an unorganized heap on the floor. Also unlike the stun spore, the confusion had managed to get the whole group.

"Hey Nikki," Laura said as she poked my shoulder.

"Yeah Laura?"

"I think you might have messed up a little,"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you used stun spore to freeze the ones in the front right? And how that kept the ones in the back from advancing forward?"

"Yeah," I replied, not knowing where she was going with this?

"Well I'm pretty sure that confusion loosed them up," She said as she pointed at the mob. The stunned ones were still on the floor, except for the Loudred for had apparently already recovered from the paralysis.

He looked a little miffed, with his harsh glare and clenched fists. He said something I couldn't make out and several of the Whismur came forward, forming a line from one edge of the wall to the other.

" _They're getting ready to attack,"_ Brook explained as I made out all of the pokémon breathing in and getting ready to use their trademark scream.

"Shroomish, return," I said as I returned Shroomish as fast as possible and reclipped him to my pocket.

"Nikki?" Laura sounded concerned, which made we wonder if she knew anything about Whismur.

"Run!" I grabbed Laura's hand, not wanting to risk the Kanto native not knowing whismur's preferred method of attack. It was a good thing that she just ran without asking for much of an explanation because soon afterward the cavern exploded with noise.

Now normally a move like uproar isn't that strong, but with so many Whismur doing it at once, the attack looked a lot stronger than normal. The fact that we were in a narrow tunnel that concentrated the sound didn't help either.

As the sound waves reached us, I had to let go of Laura's hand. I put my hands up to cover my ears and kept running, hoping that Laura would do the same. Brook was doing the same, using her limited telekinesis to plant her feet into my shoulder so she could use both of her hands. It hurt my shoulder a little but nowhere near as much as it would hurt Brook if she fell off my shoulder so I ignored the pain.

A source of light from up ahead pulled me out of my thoughts. I remembered that we had passed by a side exit that led the old path over the mountain a little while ago. It looked like we had found a way to get out of this tunnel.

I made a hard left as we reached the split. I ran past the small natural chamber that connected the manmade cave to the outside and exited the mountain entirely.

I leaned forward, trying to catch my breath. Brook did the same, putting one hand on my head for leverage. Next to me, I saw Laura tossing her head back and putting her arms around the back of her head.

"Don't… lean… makes it… harder… to recover…" She said in-between gasps for air. "Also… deep breaths… not short…"

Brook and I took her advice, and after a few seconds, we did indeed feel a little better. It helped that by leaving the cave we had done either one of two things. If the Loudred and his Whismur gang felt as though the cave was their territory, then we had escaped them. We would have to contact someone from the region and report this kind of thing, but hopefully, we personally had seen the last of them.

Of course, if they did keep chasing us then running out here had done something else. It was a lot easier for us to fight in a big open area like this then the cramped little cave. Too many of my fighting strategies required a large open area to work properly. Something that I would have to fix in the future. As the sounds of the mob neared from inside the cave, it looked like we were going to be fighting.

"Shroomish, Vimilky, come out," I unclipped both of their pokéballs and tossed them. Both of the pokémon appeared in front of me, the two leaving a small space between them. Brook jumped forward, taking up the middle spot.

Laura called out Doduo and Oddish, the two of them taking a spot off to the side. We had five on our side and too many on the other side. I was sure we'd be fine.

Loudred exited from the cave leading the rest of the mob. Instead of the angry glare he had given us earlier, he looked amused, like he had just won.

Loudred said something to our pokémon, and I saw all five of them blank.

"Brook, what happened?" I asked just as Loudred yelled something. It wasn't the sound based attack from like from before. Instead, it sounded more like a general call. The call passed, and a few moments later the bushes behind us started rustling.

I turned and looked behind me. I gulped as more Whismur appeared from the bushes. They all narrowed their eyes and walked out into the clearing, surrounding us.

" _That, that's what's happening,"_ Rook said as Shroomish and Vimilky ran back to me to face off against the new group behind us.

The situation had just gone from too many to way too many.

The Loudred said something that must have been the sign to charge because all of the Whismur suddenly started running at us.

"Okay everyone, get ready!"

Now normally in this kind of situation, each individual enemy would be weak enough to go down in a hit or two. That would make this an even fight despite our numeric disadvantage. That's how it usually went in action movies anyway.

However as the fight started, it became clear that our pokémon were not action movie characters.

Doduo used his heads to snap at Whismur that got too close, using his feet to kick any that got too brave. However he only had two heads and two legs, so the when he got jumped n by five Whismur at once, he went down pretty quickly.

Shroomish tried to keep his distance, using stun spore and bullet seed to support Vimilky. However, even Vimilky couldn't take the whole group. A small group ran at Shroomish and he got overwhelmed before I could do a thing.

Oddish had almost the same thing happen to her, only she had the misfortune off not having bullet seed, so her ranged options were much worse. Overwhelmed before Laura could do a thing.

Vimilky did the second best out of all of them. The steel type was resistant to every attack the Whismur had. She managed to take down a few of them with her other jaw while ignoring any attack they threw at her.

However, the Whismur said something among themselves before a group of almost ten of them charged Vimilky. She hit a few of them but the rest grabbed her and piled on. Vimilky was tanky, but she wasn't physically strong enough to fight with seven opponents hanging onto her. She went down as the Whismur started what would be the long process of applying a death by a thousand cuts.

And Brook…

Brook was jumping all around the battlefield, using a combination of boosted jumps, boosted dashes and the rare teleport, and holding her own.

She landed on one of the Whismur before boosting off, hitting the one she was standing on with a confusion. She landed in front of another Whismur and goaded them into attacking. Whismur screamed and Brook teleported, making the Whismur hit the one that had been behind Brook. Brook, who had teleported behind the Whismur that had tried to attack her, blasted the Whismur in the back and threw them into the other Whismur. She smirked before boosting away from another Whismur that had charged at her.

As she boosted through the air, letting out a volley of confusions while in midair, I was struck with a realization.

Brook was in fact, an action movie character.

But even action movie characters could lose. And with all of our other pokémon getting recalled into their pokéballs, Brook was on her own with barely any of the Whismur taken down. Loudred was standing near the back, watching the fight with a savage grin, looking pretty full of himself.

Laura and I huddled closer as the Whismur surrounded us. Even with our backs to each other, it was pretty clear that we had no chance.

"Looks like I got here just in time,"

A flash of purple light ran in a circle around the two of us. All of the Whismur that had surrounded us were sent flying back. The flash dashed towards where Brook was, all of the Whismur in its path getting batted aside.

Brook landed after blasting one of the Whismur as the purple flash stopped behind her.

Standing behind Brook was a much larger pokémon. A tall, green and white pokémon with arm blades and wearing a necklace with a green and pink gem. A Gallade wearing a megastone, and the only Gallade with a megastone I knew of was the partner of…

"Wally!" I called out as I looked towards the entrance of the cave. Standing there was the tall green haired teen with a pendant in his hand.

"Hey there Nicholas, sorry it took me so long. It looks like you two needed some help,"

Now I could have said something like, 'no we had it handled' or 'I guess you could help out a bit'. Pretend I was some sort of cool hero kid that kept cool under any situation.

"Yes please, help would be good. We will take all the help."

"Sounds good, Gallade, show them what you can do,"

"Brook follow his lead,"

Gallade and Brook stood back to back, looking ready to take on the rest of the mob.


	10. Episode 10

**Episode 10: Internal struggles of the heart and mind**

 _"_ _So you're the Ralts I was going to help. Looks like I'll be helping you a little sooner than I thought."_

Now, normally I would say something like 'no I had this handled' or 'I guess I could let you help out'. And I tried to say something like that. I tried really hard. There was just one issue.

 _"_ _No, I, help, me? I don't need… what were we talking about?"_ I said telepathically as I tried to ignore how ludicrously handsome the Gallade that had my back was. It was a good thing that I was already pretty winded because it gave me the perfect excuse for how red my face was.

 _"_ _Looks like you're a little out of it from fighting,"_ He said with a concerned frown on his face. _"_ _Do you need to sit this out?"_

The suggestion that I was in less than perfect fighting condition was enough to shake me out of my stupor. Good thing too because the Whismur had gotten over their worry and charged at the two of us.

 _"_ _No I'm fine,"_ I protested, as I took aim and fired a pair of confusions at the charging Whismur. As the two Whismur fell I suddenly realized that we hadn't really introduced ourselves yet. _"_ _My name's…"_ I sent him my psychic name, the Brook running past the bottom of a cliff. _"_ _But my non-psychic friends call me Brook,"_

Gallade smirked as his arm blades flashed purple and he cut some of the Whismur that had decided to try and get close to us. _"_ _Nice to meet you, my name is…"_ He sent me a mental image of a beautiful golden flower standing all by itself at the top of a cliff all by itself. I was suddenly filled with a sense of determination and triumph like I had just scaled that mountain just for the chance to see that flower.

 _"That's a cool name,"_ I told him as I saw a trio of Whismur getting ready to scream at us. _"_ _Heads up,"_ I told him as I booted upwards just as the trio screamed. I looked back to make sure he had gotten out of the way. He hadn't, instead, he had crossed his arms in front of him and made a blue shield. He charged forward, letting the shield block the hit as he got closer.

He ran past the three Whismur and then broke the shield. Before the Whismur could do anything, they were already on the ground courtesy of his arm blades.

"What do you two think you're doing?" Loudred yelled as he watched us take down the members of his squad one by one. He yelled angrily and charged at us.

"Finally, the boss comes out to fight," The Gallade I knew as Triumph Flower said as he stared down the pokémon coming right at him. "Let's finish this here and now,"

There was a flash of purple light, and soon Loudred was passed out on the floor. Triumph Flower stood over the collapsed pokémon, his arm blades still glowing with psychic energy.

"Good job Gallade," I heard the new green haired human say as he walked over to the fallen Loudred. "And as for you, you've caused way too much trouble," He took out a plain pokéball and dropped it on Loudred.

"They got the boss!" One of the Whismur yelled as the rest began panicking. The group soon scattered into the forest around the clearing.

"Looks like we took care of that," The green haired human said as he picked up the pokéball.

"Thanks for the help Wally," Nikki said as he and Laura walked over to the new human who I guess was named Wally. "We would have been down for if you hadn't helped us out,"

"Yeah, thanks for the help," Laura said as well.

Wally blinked as he spotted the Laura, almost like he hadn't noticed her until now.

"Hey, Nicholas, who's this?" He whispered to Nikki as he pointed at Laura.

"Excuse me?" Laura said plainly.

"This is Laura, I've been traveling with her for a while now," Nikki explained to Wally as the older human narrowed his eyes.

He starred at the two of them as he scratched his chin.

 _"_ _So is he always like this or?"_ I asked Triumph Flower who was also watching our humans with the same look of slight amusement that I was.

 _"_ _Not usually, but he does tend to change personalities pretty drastically. Maybe this is a new thing for him,"_ He said with a kind smile that suddenly reminded me how insanely handsome he was.

Now that I thought about it didn't he say something about helping me out earlier? Nikki had said something about meeting up with a trainer with a Gallade to help me figure out my empathy sense a while back now that I thought about it. Was this that trainer and Gallade? Did that mean that I would be spending a lot of time around him?

I wasn't sure how to feel about that.

 _"_ _Hey, are you okay?"_ He asked as he leaned down to get closer to my face. The closer he got, the redder I felt my face getting. _"_ _You have a bit of color on your cheeks, did the fight take a lot out of you?"_ I pointed my arms downward and did a boosted jump towards Nikki's shoulder.

 _"_ _Yeah, totally fine, Just need to rest for a little bit,"_ I said as I landed on Nikki who exclaimed in surprise.

"You alright there brook?" Nikki asked me as he helped me take up my usual standing position on his shoulder.

 _"_ _Yeah, never better,"_ I said as I tried to not look directly at Triumph Flower. _"_ _I'm totally fine."_

"Are you sure? Because you look a little red in the face,"

"Hey Nicholas," Nikki wore a concerned yet tired look on his face. "Is your Ralt's female by any chance?"

I gulped. How did this 'Wally' know? I hadn't even known the guy for a few minutes and he had somehow already figured out my secrets.

"Yeah, why?" Nikki responded to my growing horror.

"Just, just don't worry about it." He gave Triumph Flower an exhausted look. "How do you not notice the carnage you leave in your wake?" He said as he patted Triumph Flower's shoulder.

 _"_ _What, what are you talking about,"_ He responded while wearing a bewildered look on his face.

"Don't worry about it," Wally said nonchalantly as he kept walking. "Come on guys, we can still make it back to my house for a late lunch. Everyone's already waiting for us."

 _"_ _Wally? Wally?"_ Triumph Flower said as he walked into the cave, Nikki and Laura following after him. _"_ _Wally, why do you keep saying that? What am I doing, just tell me already!"_

I looked back as Triumph Flower started running after us. I pouted as he ran. Even confused and somewhat angry, he was still way too handsome.

I had to hand it to the weird human who modified Nikki's pokédex. That healing function she added worked really well. By the time we were halfway through the cave, Milk and Shroomish were already feeling well enough to walk. Milk had apparently found my earlier interaction with the older Gallade hilarious and had insisted on walking outside to provide snide commentary.

Shroomish had decided to walk outside just because everyone else was and he figured why not.

"So green energy,"

"What was that?" I almost jumped as Triumph Flower suddenly appeared next to Nikki and I. I must have not been paying attention, too distracted with thinking about him.

"Your psychic energy. It was green. I've never seen that before," He said aloud, a consideration for the rest of our little group who weren't psychic. While a part of me swooned at how super nice and thoughtful it was, a part of me was kind of annoyed that milk could hear every word of our conversation.

"Really? Its been colored green since I first learned how to powers properly,"

"Properly?"

"Yeah, before that my psychic energy was blue,"

"That's odd, blue is the standard normal color for most psychic types. The stronger ones like myself sometimes use purple but I've never heard of green being used for anything other than a protect."

"So I'm weird?" I teased, knowing full well that that wasn't what he meant.

I actually managed to get him to laugh with that one.

"No no, that's not what I meant at all." He said having gotten all of the laughter out of his system. "What I meant to say was that your powers were a little odd. You yourself are a pretty normal Ralts besides that."

"Really?"

"Yeah, well maybe a bit more battle happy than the average Ralts if that fight back there was any indication. But on the other hand, I could say the same about most pokémon with trainers."

"Thanks. So, is my power weird in other ways?"

He thought for a second before answering, probably trying to find the best way to put it. I had already managed one over him, he probably didn't want that a second time.

"You're stronger than the average Ralts. That trick you do when you aim a confusion to speed yourself up, I've never seen anything like it,"

Trick to speed myself up… was he talking about what I thought he was talking about?"

"You mean my boost? That doesn't make any sense. How's a Ralts supposed to get around a battlefield without it? I mean we're not exactly made to run,"

"They don't, most Ralts have a pretty stationary fighting style. They can't generate the psychic energy to push themselves like that until they become Kirlia and by then they have long legs to do the job anyway,"

"So what you're saying," Milk cut in, interrupting our conversation "Is that Brook is a freaky weirdo whose way stronger then she has any right to be,"

Milk why?

I stood there in silence, too embarrassed to say anything in response.

"Hey, I say that being strong for her age is a good thing. Especially when I had to fight alongside her," Triumph Flower said with that stupid smile. "It felt more like I was fighting with a Kirlia then with a Ralts,"

I felt myself blush again as Milk started laughing.

"Hey Gallade, over here. I want to talk to you for a second," Triumph Flower's trainer called him over, saving me from further mortification.

"How do you…," Wally started saying before I stopped paying attention. Mostly because the brunt of my attention was firmly on Milk, who was looking up at me with the widest, happiest grin she could muster.

"You have a crush," Milk said in the highest singsong voice I had ever heard her use.

"Hey, not so loud," I protested. My face was already as red as an overly ripe cherry berry, no need to make it worse. "I don't want any of the others to know,"

"Brook," Milk said giving me a flat look. "They already know,"

"What, they don't know. I have no idea what you're talking about,"

Instead of replying directly, Milk rolled her eyes. "Hey Shroomish," She said as she motioned for Shroomish to get closer. "Do you know?"

"About Brook's crush on that pokémon we just met? Pretty sure everyone in this cave has it figured out by now."

I reeled back from the shocking act.

"Betrayed by my very own mushroom buddy. Today is a dark day, one that will live on in history." I grumbled as I curled up on Nikki's shoulders and waited for deaths cold embrace to take me.

"Did you take some classes from that Skitty from earlier when we weren't looking?" Milk said in an amused voice.

"Probably just copied and did her best," Shroomish added his own thoughts before going back to walking in silence.

"Hey Brook are you okay," Nikki asked in concern as he tried to get me to do something. "Is she okay?" There was a short pause. "If you say so Vimilky,"

We emerged from the cave maybe half an hour later. We really had been close to the exit.

"It feels so good to be out of that cave," Nikki said as I felt him stretch his arms out. A pretty easy feat when I was literally on his arm.

I could feel a lot of things. The warmth of the sun on my back, the gentle breeze that brought with it the sweet smelling air…

Milk's look of amusement as I stayed curled up the best I could.

"Come on, my family's waiting for the rest of us," Wally said as he started leading us towards one of the nicer looking neighborhoods of the town. Well, I say that but honestly, from what I could see while on Nikki's shoulder, it felt like all of the neighborhoods in this town were the nice ones.

We arrived after a few minutes of walking past some beautiful houses with huge yards to a beautiful house with a huge yard.

On the front porch of the house was a well-built older human wearing a dress shirt. In his arms was a tiny human, the smallest I had ever seen.

"Wally!" The older human bellowed cheerfully as he waved at our group. The tiny human in his other arm looked up and copied him.

"Hi Wawwy'" The smaller human said in a way that I couldn't help but adorable.

"Nikki, Laura, come with me," Wally said as he went up the stairs.

"What about our pokémon?" Laura asked.

"Well, we have something set up for them in the backyard. Gallade can show you them the way,"

"If you say so," Nikki said as he picked me off his shoulder and placed me down on the floor. Not wanting to get myself covered in dirt, I uncurled myself and stood up. "You okay with this?"

"Not really but hey, free food," I justified to Nikki.

"That's great to hear," Triumph Flower said, suddenly appearing behind me. How did someone so tall move so silently? It wasn't fair to my poor heart. "I'll lead you guys there,"

"See you later after lunch guys," Nikki told the three of us before heading inside.

"You guys start eating without me," Laura said as she took out both of her pokéballs. "You said that the pokécenter is going this way and then making a right at the town center right?"

Wally confirmed the directions for Laura and soon she was gone for now.

Which only left us four pokémon.

"Okay everyone, follow me," Triumph Flower said as he started leading us around back.

"I wonder what he meant back there by something being great to hear?" I asked Shroomish in a hushed voice.

"No clue. You were the one using telepathy, wasn't he responding to you?"

I stopped mid-step. If he had been responding to me then that meant he heard me talk about the free food. Which probably meant that he thought I was a glutton or something.

Oh just kill me now and throw my soul into a furnace.

"Brook, you okay?" Shroomish asked.

"Yeah, never better," I lied as I started moving again. Could this day get any worse?

As we ate lunch, I quickly figured out how this could get worse.

"Hey Gallade, sit next to me,"

We weren't sitting on the grass or anything like that like a part of me had feared. Instead, Wally's family had set up a large outdoor table with chairs and everything for us.

"I suppose that I wouldn't be opposed to you taking a spot next to mine,"

And we were all sitting under a nice tarp that blocked out most of the sun and gave us some nice shade.

"I mean I guess you can sit next to me if you want,"

And the food looked really good. I mean really good. Wally's family must have had some good cooks. I would have to tell them via Nikki when we got done.

"Oh geez guys, thanks but maybe we should let our guests choose first,"

When I developed this random crush on this Gallade, I had been foolish enough to assume that I would be the only one.

The Delcatty, Roserade, and Garchomp crowding Triumph Flower told me otherwise. It looked like I hadn't been the first to fall for this Gallade. In fact, I seemed to be fourth.

"I guess we can let them choose where to sit," The Delcatty said with a friendly smile. She felt the safest of the three and the friendliest with Triumph Flower.

"I guess that would be proper, wouldn't it?" The Roserade said in a refined manner. She broke the refined act for a second to gaze at Triumph Flower.

"Well it's not like I care who sits next to you or anything," The Garchomp said as she crossed her arms in a standoffish fashion. The blush on her face told me that she was lying.

Off to the side an Altaria, Magnezone, Talonflame, and Azumarill in varying states of annoyance, amusement or, in the case of the Magnezone, complete neutrality. By what I imagined was a complete coincidence, all of these pokémon were either male or genderless but identified as male anyway.

I walked over to the group of other pokémon while Triumph Flower was distracted by his… admirers.

"So is this normal for you guys or…"

"For him yes," The Azumarill commented, clearly being on the more annoyed side of the 'annoyed-amused' scale. "For the rest of us, not so much. And the worst part is, he doesn't even know what's going on,"

A spark of hope lit up in my heart despite my protests.

"What do you mean he doesn't know?" I asked trying to think of any answer that would make sense besides the obvious one.

"As far as Gallade knows, Delcatty, Roserade, and Garchomp are his good friends who just really like spending time with him."

All three of us were gobsmacked. Well, Milk and I were anyway. Shroomish just looked a tiny bit shocked but that was normal for him.

"Are you joking?"

Magnezone looked on at the three pokémon crowding his teammate.

"Despite being a steel type, I'm almost certain that that Gallade is the densest member of this team," He finally said.

"But shouldn't he have that empathy sense thing." Milk argued. "The reason we came here in the first place was for him to train Brook on how to use it."

"From what he's told me, Gallades give up their ability to use some of the more… esoteric psychic arts. In exchange, they gain martial prowess far beyond what a Gardevoir can do." Talonflame explained from up on his perch overlooking the yard above us. "While he still has empathy sense, it's not as fine-tuned as it would be if he had become a Gardevoir. In fact, it's probably not even all that impressive among Kirlia."

"He can tell that they all feel positively about him, but he has no clue towards the extent or depth to their feelings," Altaria explained from his own perch that was next to Talonflame's. "It doesn't help that as Magnezone said, he's pretty dense. But I wouldn't worry about your friend, he should still know all of the basics needed to teach her how to use her own Empathy sense."

"Yeah, so don't worry about it kid," Azumarill said as he walked over and rubbed the top of my head. "I can't stand the guy and even I can admit that he knows what's he's doing when it comes to all this psychic stuff,"

While finally learning to use my empathy sense wasn't the perfect consolation prize for my broken heart, I'd take it anyway. Content with what I had, I went to go sit at the table, Shroomish and Milk following soon afterward. Wally's team joined after we had taken our seats, Delcatty, Roserade, and Garchomp all choosing to sit as close to Triumph Flower as possible.

The lunch that followed might have well been the most emotionally confusing in my life.

A part of me was still heartbroken and seeing the object of my affection be surrounded by other females who were into him hurt.

"Gallade, you have something on your, let me just get that,"

Well, at first it did anyway.

"Are you really going to use your tail to clean him you unhygienic furball?" Roserade said as she pushed Delcatty to the side and wiped away some of the food that Triumph Flower had on his cheek.

"As if using your roses is any better," Garchomp commented as she focused on her own food. Despite that I saw her sneak some glances at Triumph Flower, usually followed up by a jealous glare before she went back to her food.

"Thanks guys, I didn't even notice." He said with the same smile that I had once called kind. But now, now I knew it as the cruel thing that it really was.

As the lunch passed, so did the pain and hurt. In its place, came the laughter. The way that the three of them tried so hard to get Triumph Flower's attention and affection made me laugh.

"I helped them prepare this dish just for you,"

"Oh, thanks Roserade. This is really good. You should cook more often, you're really good at it,"

"Enjoy those fruits, I was the one who went out and got them. Wouldn't want my effort to be wasted,"

"Oh, pears, my favorite. Thanks Garchomp,"

But by the end…

"So Gallade, I heard Wally say that you guys ran into a bit of trouble, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Delcatty. Shroomish and Vimilky had a bit of a rough time though,"

All I felt was pity.

"Hey Gallade, want to go for a walk afterward?"

"Sorry Delcatty, I actually already agreed to help Brook out with some of her psychic powers,"

All three heads suddenly turned and looked at me. Just my luck, I was in the middle of eating a biscuit and they had caught me mid-bite. I locked eyes with all three of them one by one. Even without my empathy sense, I could make a good guess as to what they were thinking.

'Has a new challenger appeared?'

As I felt myself sweat under the heat of their glares, I knew my answer.

The answer was that a new challenger had appeared, and then immediately dropped out.

I finished my bite and started to chew the biscuit as slowly as possible. Not only to give me more time until I had to give some sort of response, but also because this thing was freaking delicious. It had some herbs backed into it with a tiny bit of sugar to give it this really flavorful taste that I wish I could have described better.

Of course, I couldn't put it off forever so I did eventually swallow the biscuit in my mouth.

We all sat in silence, every eye on me.

"So," I finally said, breaking the silence. "Don't suppose I could get away with taking another bite can I?"

"No,"

"Not on your life,"

"Not a chance kid,"

"Figures," I muttered under my breath.

"What's going on?" Triumph Flower asked, looking bewildered. This whole conversation must have flown right over his still ludicrously handsome face.

"Don't worry about it," I reassured him. "I'm sure they just want to know about the training that you'll be giving me,"

"Are you sure you want me to?" He crossed his arms and gave me a concerned look. "From what I've gathered it sounds really personal,"

"I can tell them a few details," I told him before looking at the expectant trio. "Due to reasons that I will not go into, my psychic powers are a little messed up. Specifically, I don't have the ability to feel other people's emotions like Ralt's are supposed to be able to."

I went on, telling them about my disastrous attempt at using my empathy sense, Nikki's connection to Brendan and his connection to Wally, and how Wally had offered for Triumph Flower to teach me the basics of using empathy sense correctly.

"I'm just glad to finally be able to use it. I mean every other Ralts in the world can use it so I feel a little left behind," I admitted, ending my whole spiel.

"Oh come on, don't be like that," Triumph Flower interjected. "You might not have empathy sense but you still fight with the kind of raw power that I would expect from a Kirlia, not a Ralts,"

That sent some alarmed whispers around the rest of the table.

"Hey Gallade, what do you mean by that?" Delcatty asked, taking advantage of the moment to inch a little closer to him.

"Well remember how Wally mentioned something about running into trouble on the way back?"

"Yeah, we were all super worried for a second,"

"Well…" Triumph Flower told the rest of the table about what happened in the cave. As he did so, he made sure to point out how well I had done at several points in the retelling.

"I wasn't that impressive," I muttered. I wasn't sure why I was acting so modest for a change. I promised myself all the time but it felt different when someone else did it.

Apparently assured that Triumph Flower relationship with me was going to be a strict teacher/student one, the trio of admirers backed off for the rest of the lunch.

Triumph Flower approached me after we finished eating.

"I'm ready to start your empathy sense training whenever you are. Just say the word and we'll get started,"

"Well, in that case, why not start now?" I said, excited to get started.

"Okay then, follow me,"

Triumph Flower turned and walked away, my own stubby legs following after him. As we got closer to the edge of the property, I noticed three pairs of eyes following us.

My excitement sank, just a little bit, as the three of them started following us as stealthily as they could. They stopped once we reached the edge of the property, only to start following us again.

And somehow Triumph Flower was either ignoring them or unaware that they were even there. I wasn't even sure which of the two was worse.

At the very least I was pretty sure that Milk and Shroomish were following us too. If the trio tried anything to mess with my training, I trusted them to at least try to stop it.

I couldn't help but cringe as we kept walking. Delcatty managed to sneak behind us well enough, her catlike grace keeping her hidden. Roserade almost vanished in the forest, if I hadn't known that she was following from the start, I might have never noticed her at all. And Garchomp…

Garchomp made a stomping sound as she walked and hit behind trees that were too narrow to conceal her. It was her attempts at sneaking that let me know that Triumph Flower was willingly ignoring her.

Milk and Shroomish didn't even bother, just casually strolling along behind the trio. If I hadn't been annoyed by the fact that we were being followed, I might have even found it funny.

"Okay we're here," Triumph Flower said as we arrived at a nice little clearing. There was a small hill near the center next to a decently sized boulder with a smooth, flat top. The entire ground was covered in tall verdant grass that swayed in the sweet-smelling breeze.

I had a sudden idea. I closed my eyes and opened myself to the sea of power.

"This place…" I whispered as I felt the power around me. "It's calm, the power here flows gently," Back on Dewford when Nikki had tried to teach me how to swim, he had helped me learn to flow. This feeling of the power flowing around me, it reminded me of the waves gently moving me around.

"I don't know why the sea of power is so calm here, but it makes it the perfect place to train for this kind of thing. Or, I think so at least,"

He took in a deep breath as he looked the clearing over.

"You know, now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever taken someone else here. Never had another psychic around who could make use of this place,"

He walked over to the boulder and blinked.

"Oh, I forgot. I'll be right back, just wait a second," He said as he rushed off into the woods. I heard him stop after a little bit, only for the forest to suddenly be filled with the sound of psychic energy cutting something. Triumph Flower came back shortly after, carrying a much smaller boulder with a matching flat top.

"What's that for?" I thought we would be training my empathy sense, not my battle powers. How was the boulder supposed to help?

"Well you need a place to sit too," He set the smaller boulder in front of the larger one. With a single jump, Triumph Flower leaped over the clearing and landed on the top of the larger one. He settled down and sat crossed legged on top.

I took one look at the smaller boulder and made a guess as to how much power I would have to put into a boosted jump in order to clear it.

I aimed downwards and jumped.

I was getting really good at judging how much power I needed to make jumps like this. I landed on the smaller boulder without too much of a fuss. I sat down and crossed my legs, mirroring Triumph Flower.

"I'll focus on this first part," Triumph Flower explained. "For now, just close your eyes. You'll know when I start things,"

I did as he said, closing my eyes and instead focusing on the sea around me. I could see him, the power contained in him. It was strong, but controlled, like a great beast that had been fully tamed and followed Triumph Flower's will to the letter. I could also just make out the five, much smaller psychic signatures of the pokémon watching us from just beyond the clearing.

The power within Triumph Flower suddenly unfolded, reaching out to me. I reached out and 'touched' it with my own psychic power. The two beacons, stable and unflinching within the sea of power, stood fast, the connection between them strong.

I flew out, reaching the center point between us. I was swallowed up by the light, and soon I was somewhere else.

"What… where is this place?" I wondered as I gazed out into the vast white, empty void. No matter where I looked, I saw nothing, no landmarks, nothing to see.

I couldn't even see the horizon, the sky and ground having the same shade of pale white.

I made a mental note to not look down.

"This is a mental landscape, a place where we have complete control over our surroundings,"

I looked around in every direction, looking for Triumph Flower. He was nowhere to be found.

"Up here," I looked up, Triumph Flower was sitting on… nothing. As in he was sitting down like he was hanging his legs off a ledge, but there was no ledge. In fact, there was nothing there at all. It looked like he was sitting on the air.

Or was he sitting on the ground and I was looking up from underground. Without anything else around us, I guess there really wasn't a difference.

"How did you get up here?" I asked him. "Or did I end up down here?" I asked myself.

"Like I said, we have complete control over this place. The only thing we can't control here is each other. If you want to get up here, just do it,"

I looked at the 'ground' below me and, after dealing with the fear and terror of seeing a white void below me, imagined an elevator lift under my feet. As I imagined it lifting me up towards Triumph Flower, I rose.

"This feels weird," I said as I stepped off the 'elevator' at the same height as Trump Flower. "Where did you learn to make this kind of place?"

"Learned it from a friend of a friend," He explained as he got up and walked over to me. "Probably the most advanced psychic technique I know,"

"So, not to be rude or anything but…" I hesitated to go on.

"It's fine, go on," He motioned me with his hands to carry on.

"How… how is this supposed to help me learn to use my empathy sense?"

"Now that is a good question." He said "Well from what your trainer explained, it sounds like you have some mental trauma keeping you from activating your empathy sense. Well, the best way to deal with that is to deal with it directly. And there is no better way to deal with a problem directly then to deal with in a mental landscape,"

"I don't know how to feel about this,"

"Good, that's probably how you should feel," He explained as he took a step back. "Now, I want you to create a door. A door to your memories. Imagine your memories as though they were physical things. Maybe books, maybe orbs, it can be whatever you want. Just make them small enough that we can see a ton of them at once,"

My memories as physical things…

"I think I have an idea," I told him as a plain door appeared in front of both of us. He motioned for me to open it. I gulped as I grabbed the handle and pushed.

The door opened into a bright white light.

"Let's go," Triumph floor took the first step and then waited for me to follow. I took a deep breath and followed him in.

"Crystals?" He asked as he took in our new surroundings. We were in a calm forest, maybe around early afternoon. Everywhere we could see there were trees, providing shade from the sun above and holding crystal memories in their trunks.

The crystals shined brightly in every color I could imagine. Brilliant reds, beautiful blues, and splendorous greens only made up, a small part of the rainbow world that surrounded Triumph Flower and I. And I knew that if I were to get a closer look, inside each of these crystals, I would find inside one of my memories.

"Yeah a little while ago…" I started saying before I was cut off by a burst of light from one of the nearby crystals. Triumph Flower and I looked at each other before getting closer to investigate.

It was one of the crystals, specifically one of the yellow ones. I touched it and soon triumph Flower and I found ourselves floating above the ground next to a familiar group of travelers.

"So deep in the darkest part of the cave is a chamber where all of the walls are covered in gems," Memory Milk said as she walked alongside Nikki. I sat on Nikki's shoulder, entranced by Milk who had been telling me about her old home.

"This happened a few days ago," I told Triumph Flower who nodded in understanding. Time froze around us as I kept explaining "The first day after leaving Rustboro, I was really anxious to start helping Nikki with his training. Milk must have noticed because she came out of her pokéball to tell me all about the cave she grew up,"

Time started to flow again.

"It was the most beautiful place in the whole cave system. It's probably the most beautiful place on the whole island, maybe the whole world,"

"Sounds amazing, wish we could have gone there ourselves," Past me said looking wistfully. "Not like we can go there now," I had been thinking about how we would probably be blamed for the fire that burned down half the port.

"Yeah, not without every pokémon in that cave blaming us for what happened to Vorn," Past Milk said with a shudder.

"Oh wow I forgot about that part," Time stopped as I suddenly realized what I was about to say.

"Are you okay," Triumph Flower asked, looking concerned like he usually did.

"Can you keep a secret?" I asked him before making a mental note to apologize to Nikki later.

"Brook this is your mental landscape, where your most private and precious memories are stored. I would be a monster to reveal anything in here and I am not a monster,"

The trio of female pokémon pinning for you might say different but that was neither here nor there.

"I promise to never tell anyone about anything I see or hear unless you tell me otherwise,"

I took a deep breath, if I wanted to do this, I had to trust him.

"Okay," I told him as time started to resume.

"I was talking about how you and Nikki kind of sort of burned like half the warehouses in Dewford port,"

Triumph Flower went slack-jawed. Whatever he was expecting, arson was probably not it.

"To be fair, most of that was done by Vorn. Nikki and I just happened to be the ones he was chasing. Totally doesn't count."

"Well, no one died so I guess all's well that ends well right?" My past self said as she and Milk started laughing. Triumph Flower just looked at me with shock. Or at least he had been. I had long since looked away to avoid meeting his eyes.

"Sounds like you two are having fun," Nikki smiled as he watched the two of us. "What are you guys talking about anyway?"

"Tell him we're talking about something dumb," Milk cut in before I could respond.

"We're talking about what's better, bread or metal,"

Dream me told him plainly, hoping that he would fall for it.

"You two were not debating metal versus bread," He said, not falling for it.

"It didn't work," The memory me said looking a lot more downcast then I remembered.

"Well of course it didn't," The Milk of the past said looking disappointed. "Bread versus Metal, is that the best you could do?"

"Well, you didn't exactly give me a lot of time to work with," The me from the past argued back as the memory started to fade away. A few moments later, it had faded completely and the two of us were standing in my memory forest again.

"So do I even want to know what happened on Dewford or…?"

"It's not our fault, you see what happened was…" From there I went on to tell Triumph Flower about out misadventures in Dewford. As I did so, we got pulled into more memories, allowing him to see what happened with his own eyes. By the end of it all, his shock had worn off and had been replaced with understanding.

"Well by the looks of it, I wouldn't really say that it was your fault," He said as we reappeared in the crystal forest.

"But was it though?" I argued, not caring how childish I sounded. I knew it wasn't the most compelling argument, but it was still the one I asked myself from time to time.

He both looked at each other, not sure where to go from here. Ultimately, we both just shrugged and silently decided to move on.

"Okay so now for the thing we actually came for," Triumph Flower said with a clap. "Okay Brook, I want you to try to use your empathy sense on me," I nodded and closed my eyes, getting ready to…

"Wait stop, I forgot to tell you the important part. Don't rush this, in fact, go as slowly as possible." He explained, his voice becoming progressively more serious with each thing he said. "It sounds like your empathy sense is blocked by some sort of traumatic memory. So if that's the case then it should start to shine if you try using your empathy sense. We figure out what memory it is, we should be able to figure out how to help you move past it."

"But I don't remember it, why would it block my empathy sense if I couldn't remember it?"

"Traumatic memories can seal themselves up, a mind's way to help itself from breaking. Also, don't go all the way, stop before that. We're trying to figure out what memory is blocking you right now, nothing more," He broke into a sudden smile and went back to his friendlier voice. "So just do your best, I know you can do this,"

I looked away from his smiling face, not wanting him to see my blush. I closed my eyes and hoped that he didn't walk around and look at my face before I had a chance to calm down. I opened myself to the sea of power like I had back at Dewford and followed the steps the best I remembered.

Once again the world around me faded away, leaving only the bright beacon that was Triumph Flower's psychic power. I took a closer look until he took the form of a string like Nikki had back in Dewford.

With all that psychic energy floating around, it took me a second to find the string. Eventually, I did though and as I approached my hand to it, I felt the dark feeling return. I got as close as I wanted to risk and then stopped.

"I really hope he finds that memory quick," I told myself as I hovered my hand over the thread. The oppressive feeling surrounded me, feeling heavy on me. Like I was covered in chains that weren't heavy enough to completely immobilize me, but defiantly heavy enough to mess up my ability to move.

After waiting for far too long, I finally felt someone grab my shoulder. While normally I could have resisted the pull back to the… I was about to say physical world but it's really not. Anyway, while I could have resisted, I wanted to get out of there so I practically dragged myself out of there and came back to the mindscape.

"Good news, I found the memory blocking you from using your empathy sense," Triumph Flower told me in a way that left me worried.

"And what's the bad news?"

Instead of answering me, he just lifted his arm up and pointed at the…

"Yeah, I would say that counts as bad news,"

In front of us was a tree with a crystal in, just like any other tree in the crystal forest. There were just a few key differences. Instead of a brilliant crystal shining like it had been freshly polished, there was a dark purple rock that exuded a shadowy aura that made my skin crawl just looking at it.

As for the tree itself, it was old gnarled and rotted, a far cry from the vibrant healthy trees that made up the rest of the crystal forest. The only thing keeping the whole thing from falling apart were the old, rusted spiked iron chains wrapped around the tree.

"Well," I pointed out after having taken the time to take it all in. "At least it looks easy to get to,"

Triumph Flower shrugged before slowly approaching the tree.

"Careful," I cried out despite myself. I knew he would be fine but that certain everything about that that tree was putting me on edge.

"This tree, its old… In fact, I think it's the oldest tree here," He said as he inspected the bark.

"Does that mean anything," I asked as I approached hesitantly. I got the same uneasy feeling from the tree that I got from the thread. The last thing I wanted to get near the thing.

"Yeah it does," His voice sounded pained like he didn't want to say this. "From what I've gathered everything in a mindscape is symbolic. I think the age of the trees matchup to how recent the memory was. So if this is the oldest tree I can find…"

"Then my oldest memory is something so traumatic that I looked it away," I said, finishing the thought for him.

"Do you think you have any idea on what it could be?"

"Well now that I know those parts, I have a pretty good guess as to what it is,"

"Do you think you can handle it?"

I didn't bother giving him a verbal answer. She didn't deserve one, not if she's still hounding me even after all this. I thought I was free of my Mother, but it looked like she had some nails dug into me.

I reached out and grabbed the memory. The shadowy aura around the crystal dispersed. Triumph Flower screamed something in alarm and grabbed my shoulder so that we would both get pulled in. I didn't care, I had nails to dig out.

When we opened our eyes again, we were in a place I had never seen before.

"Where are we?" I said as I looked around frantically. "This doesn't look anything like the forest where I grew up!"

We were in some dark, human-made hallway. The same gray panels covered the floor, walls, and ceilings, the ones above us in clear disrepair. There was dust everywhere, and the only light source was peeking out from a half-opened door in front of us.

"Are you okay?" Triumph Flower asked as he put his hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know," I said as I grabbed his hand and squeezed. "I don't know this place, I have no idea what's behind that door. Just do me one favor,"

"Anything,"

"Whatever we see please don't judge me for it,"

"Already done,"

I smiled despite my worry. I let go of his hand and grabbed the door. I took a deep breath and pulled it open. What I saw made stunned me.

It was mother sitting down on the ground with both of my older brothers hovering around her. He looked tired like she hadn't gotten the chance to sleep in so long.

As for my brothers, they had no emotion on my face. They just stood there and starred at a small… something that Mother was cradling in her arms.

But what really got me was that all three of them were sitting in what looked like some sort of cage. The bars were broken, and are around the cage was trashed, but it was a cage none the less.

"What is this place?" Triumph Flower said as he looked around in awed terror.

"I have no idea, and where am I anyway? That's my Mother and Brothers over there but where am I?"

I suddenly heard a low crying sound. Triumph Flower and I both slowly turned towards my mother. She moved her arms around and revealed a baby Ralts with a face that I saw anytime I looked into a reflection.

Oh, so that was what was in her hands. That tiny little object she was holding was me. There was just something a little off about this picture.

"That's weird,"

"What is?"

"The way she's holding me close like she cares about me. I've never seen her act like that before," I tried not to react to the way Triumph Flower recoiled at my words. "It's just a little weird to see, like its wrong somehow," I explained as my mother brought my crying baby self up close to her face.

"Shush," She snarled. "Shush you cursed child,"

And just like that…

"And now this feels like reality," I said trying to keep the anger out of my voice. The scene before us froze in place, making the hate in my mother's eyes as plain as day.

"Brook are you all…"

"Wait, I want to see where she goes from here," I said, putting an end to the matter. Triumph Flower shrugged with a worried grimace on his face. We both stood back and watched as time restarted.

"Quite, before they hear us," She said as I started to hear the sounds of something banging and clanging from behind us. There was something out there, in the hallway that Triumph Flower and I had entered from. We stood in place waiting for something to happen.

Nothing did though, the sounds passing by the door and then fading as they got further away. The two of us let out a breath we hadn't noticed that we had been holding in.

"It sounds like they're gone Mother," One of my brothers said. It was weird seeing the two of them like this. Even though they had spent most of their time being jerks to me, seeing them act all stoic like wasn't any better.

I suddenly felt a weird heavy feeling all around me. I looked around but didn't see anything that had changed. Why was I feeling this now?

My mother suddenly raised an eye at the me she was holding in her arms.

"Is that you?" She asked with a wicked smile on her face. I suddenly got a really bad feeling about this. "A little baby, reaching out for the emotions of others for the first time,"

"Hey Triumph Flower, can you feel sensed emotions in memories?'

"Yeah you can," He admitted bitterly.

"So that's what this heavy feeling is. It's the emotions that Mother and My Brothers are feeling.

Mother held me out a bit.

"If it's emotions you want then have some more," She said as I suddenly felt the weight around me clamp down like the force of a mountain falling on top of me.

I fell to the floor and I suddenly heard screaming. It sounded like the screams of a pathetic weakling that would never amount to anything. The cry of a pathetic left over. But where was it coming from, and why did it almost sound like there were two?

"Brook!" A tall figure said as they dropped to their knees and grabbed me. They pulled me into a hug as the screaming kept going. "Brook, you have to calm down. You're not feeling these emotions directly, you have to cut yourself off now!"

He was yelling, but it didn't feel angry. I looked into him and I saw what looked like… Concern. I grasped at it, and let my mind wrap itself in the embrace of Triumph Flower's worry for me.

The screaming stopped, and I was back in the room with the cage. Time had frozen again. I glance over at My Moher and I. Baby me was caught midscream. I guess that explained why it sounded like there had been two screams.

For a little while, we just sat there, me still sniffling in his arms. I took my time to recover, not caring about anything. I now knew why I didn't have my empathy sense.

"She drowned me," I said as we parted, my memories clearing as the truth became clear to me. "Every time she felt me trying to use my empathy sense she made sure to drown me in as much anger and hate as she could. I was just a baby, so I did what a baby does when it something that hurts them. I closed myself off and never touched my empathy sense until I forgot I even had it,"

"I think we have what we came for," Triumph Flower declared as we both got up. I went to clear away the tears in my eye when I suddenly remembered that this wasn't really my hanging on my neck bandana, just a psychic construct of it. I used it to wipe my tears away instead. It felt 'right' for some reason.

We found ourselves back in the crystal forest where we had started.

"If you want to stop for today, that's fine. Heck, I'd stop if I were you. That back there, that was rough,"

And a part of me did want to stop, just not for the reasons that he probably thought I did. I already knew that Mother hated me so learning that she did this to me was no surprise.

No, I wasn't surprised or shocked or betrayed, I was equally furious and exhausted.

"Three times," Triumph Flower perked his head up as I muttered the words. "It's been three times now,"

"What's happened three times?"

"First I learned that Mother taught me how to use my psychic powers incorrectly on purpose. If I had kept using the style that she taught me I might have died by now. Then I had to learn that I was part fairy from Milk who taught me how to use those abilities. Now it turns out that she's the reason I couldn't use my Empathy sense too,"

Triumph Flower I didn't say anything, content to just let me rant a little longer.

"It's like every time I learn that I've got a new handicap or obstacle I need to overcome, it turns out she's the one who put it there. I thought that after I ran from home, I would be free. That I wouldn't have to deal with her ever again. Instead, it turns out that she's still haunting me now!"

I pointed my finger at Triumph Flower.

"So no, I don't want to take a break and do this tomorrow. I won't let my Mother control my life, I won't let her stand in my way and I won't let her slow me down. I'll do this now,"

I ended my rant and leaned forward, trying to catch my breath. I remembered what it was that Laura said to Nikki about leaning back being a faster way to recover, but I was way past caring about something like that.

"Alright then," Triumph Flower gave an awkward grin and looked off to the side a little, not wanting to meet my eyes. "I think I have an idea of how we can solve this, but before that, Brook can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, whatever, what is it?"

"Look around you for a second,"

I did and was taken aback. Our surroundings had changed. Instead of the multicolored from before, we were now surrounded by slightly older trees. Each and every single one of them had one thing in common besides their age.

They all held dark crystals that were producing the same dark aura as my first memory.

"I guess talking about all that brought them to us," I said as I saw the tree of dark memories before us.

"So many," Triumph Flower said with a small frown on his face. He was starting to pity me, I didn't want that at all. I jumped up and waved my arms in front of his face.

"Okay you said you had a good idea on how to fix my empathy sense, I'm all ears," I said once I had his attention. He blinked and must have figured out pretty quickly that I wanted to move on because he went straight to the explanation.

"Well, so the main problem is that your memory associates using your empathy sense with that rush of negative emotions. Now that you know that that shouldn't happen, you might be able to get past that, especially if you're using it on someone you trust,"

"So you think I should…"

"Try and use your empathy sense on someone close to you that you know. Someone who you know won't be harboring any ill feelings towards you,"

I looked at Triumph Flower and hummed. I think I had a good idea on who to ask.

"I would recommend your trainer seeing as how,"

"You."

He stopped mid-sentence to look at me. I stood up as straight as I could and crossed my arms. "You've already taken me this far, might as well see things through to the end,"

"But wouldn't you rather,"

I glared at him and he stopped talking. He opened his mouth to say something else. I glared even harder and not a word came out of his mouth.

"Okay, just give me a second. Actually," He looked around the Crystal Forest. "It might be better for you if we went back into the shared mindscape,"

I shrugged, he was the expert here. While I wasn't about to wait a day to recover from something I didn't need to recover from, I was willing to wait a minute or two to change locations.

We made our way back to the door that had led here in the first place. Triumph Flower went through first. I reached out to the door before stopping.

I took a second to look back at the mass of older trees and the dark crystals they held.

"You won't be able to hold me back anymore," I told my memories of Mother as I headed out back into the mindscape.

Once again, Triumph Flower and I sat across from each other. Only instead of a calm and colorful forest clearing, we did, so in an endless white void.

"Are you ready?" He asked me. I nodded back silently. "Then let's get underway. I'm going to close my eyes and focus on stabilizing my emotions to make your read easier. I'll tell you when it's safe to dive in,"

He closed his eyes as his breathing and posture became loose and relaxed.

I waited, feeling the moments go by.

Now that I thought about it, how long had we been in here for? It somehow felt both like only a few minutes and nearly the whole day. A clock would have come in handy.

Of course, that just left me wondering if any clock I made would even be accurate to the time outside.

I created a clock, curiosity getting the better of me. It was a plain digital clock like the one that Nikki had in his room. The time on it read twelve and zero minutes. So either we had been in the mindscape for so long that it was already midnight, or it had just defaulted.

I tossed the clock behind me, picturing it falling down a chasm. The lack of crashing sound behind me confirmed that my idea had worked.

I waited for a little bit longer and then Triumph Flower opened his eyes.

"It's time. Good luck, I know you can do this." He said with a smile that made me feel like all was right in the world.

I closed my eyes and waded into the sea of power. Once again I searched Triumph Flowers psychic power for the thread I needed and once again I held my hand out to it.

As my hand got closer, I felt them again. The memories of evil and cruel emotions washing over me like a vicious wave. But now that I knew, it was different. I knew that if I pulled that string then what I would find would be warmth and happiness. I dismissed the negative emotions around me like they were the leftovers from Mother that they were.

I grabbed the string in front of me and pulled.

The dark returned, swallowing me whole and leaving me in an inky black void.

"Have to admit, this would probably be more terrifying if the mindscape hadn't been almost the same," I said to no one in particular.

I looked at the string still in my hand and followed it towards what looked like a ball of glowing gold light. I gave it a careful tug.

The string held tight. I could use it to drag myself over to where the golden light was.

I grabbed the string with my other hand and started pulling myself when I felt it.

I looked behind me and saw a mass of purple coming straight for me. One look and I knew it for what it was. It was the memories that I had said I would overcome. The trauma that my Mother had left in her wake.

I started pulling faster. The trauma speeding up behind me too. I pulled and pulled, the edges of the Trauma starting to reach me as I started to feel the warm embrace of the golden light.

I almost stopped the first time the trauma licked the bottom of my foot. It was gaining on me, and I had to be quick. The terror of the trauma and the comfort of the glow filled me at an equal pace. Inside of me, both forces clashed.

"I,"

I grabbed the last bit of string before the glow.

"Am,"

I pulled as hard as I could.

"Done,"

I let go as I shot myself towards the glow.

"With you!"

I fell into the glow as the effects of the trauma faded.

This glow, it was joyful, protective, with just a hint of concern grown from fondness.

I had done it, I had read his emotions.

When I woke up, I was in the physical world once more. It looked like that clock I made might not have been wrong after all. The clearing was dark and the stars were out.

Stars that I could see clearly since I had woken with my back to the grassy ground. Out of the bottom of my vision, I could see the small boulder I had been sitting on. If I had to guess, it looked like I had fallen backward from the rock.

There was a weird blurry sound that I just noticed. I blinked and waited a few seconds for the sound to become clearer. The sound repeated two more times before a dark shape appeared in my vision.

"Brook! Are you alright?" The dark shape said in a voice I could have sworn I heard before.

The dark shape picked me up and held me into the light. I could see Nikki's face now, full of worry and concern.

"What happened?"

The memories of what happened swarmed me as I suddenly started laughing. I had done it, I had broken my chains and come out of the mindscape free.

I opened a connection between us and spoke. The message was a simple answer to his question.

"Something amazing!"

I must have passed out from exhaustion after that because the next thing I remembered was waking up the next morning in my pokéball.

I got the rest of the story from Milk and Shroomish. They had all watched for hours as Triumph Flower and I sat on the boulders. Nikki and Wally had come looking for us around sundown. Nothing really happened until a little after midnight.

That had been when I had suddenly passed out and fallen from the rock.

"And that's when Nikki picked you up and you passed out. After that, we all headed back here. Gallade told us the general gist of what happened while you two were in there, congratulations on unlocking your empathy sense by the way," Milk finished the story as she took a bite out of her breakfast.

"How did you do it anyway?" Shroomish asked. "We tried asking Gallade but he was strangely evasive when we asked,"

"That parts on me actually," I told them as I thought about what happened in the mindscape. "I told him not to tell anyone the stuff he learned about me,"

"Well, makes sense to me," Milk shrugged. We finished eating a little while later and set out to find Nikki.

We had apparently stayed the night in Wally's house, mostly because we finished so late. We were going to head out to Lavaridge in a little bit.

About an hour later, Nikki and Laura were standing at the entrance to what Nikki had called the sloped road. It was a newly opened route in-between Verdanturf and Lavaridge. It was also the route to our next gym badge. Nikki had a reason as to why we were challenging this one in particular, but he told me that he would explain it to me on the trip there.

"It was good to see you again Nicholas," Wally said as he held his hand out to Nikki. Nikki grinned and grabbed Wally's arm in a weird looking handshake where they crossed their arms and flexed. Well, they tried to flex in any case. Nikki was on the path of the psychic-type, not the fighting.

They were still saying their goodbyes when Triumph Flower came out of his pokéball.

 _"Wally, can you ask Nicholas if I can talk to Brook one last time before she leaves?"_ He asked as he walked up to Wally.

"Sure why not," Nikki said to Wally's and Triumph Flower's shock. "Don't really get why you asked Wally instead of just asking me directly though,"

 _"You are able to understand me?"_ Triumph Flower asked as Nikki unclipped my pokéball.

"Well yeah, like I told Wally, I'm training to become a psychic," He said as he expanded my pokéball. I didn't bother waiting for him to send me out. I ran to the entrance at the center of the ball and materialized in front of Triumph Flower.

"Hey there, so what do you want to talk about?" I said as a battle raged inside me.

On one side was an army of blood. They marched with a single purpose, to bring the color red to the world. Specifically by making the blood flow through my face. They claimed that the path of the blushing maiden would win this Gallade's heart.

The next side was the army of ice. The one that wanted to keep cool and talk to Triumph Flower with a steady voice and clear head. They believed that the path of the cool lass would win this Gallade's heart.

The last army was the army of logic. Most disciplined in their ways, this was the army that saw the complicated love square that Triumph Flower was already in and motioned to get as far away from the hot mess as quickly and as far as we could.

Triumph Flower started talking as three armies clashed. To my annoyance, it was the army of blood that took the first battles.

"Listen what I saw in your memories was… rough. Anyone would have had that kind of reaction, so you have no reason to feel embarrassed about it or anything,"

The army of blood took more land as I remembered the way I had acted in the mindscape.

"Yeah sorry about all of that," I told him, trying to throw the army of ice some well-needed reinforcements.

"Don't be," He said with that same stupid smile. "But I did want to talk about one of those things you said in there,"

"What is it?" The battle raged.

"Well, you said that your older brothers weren't exactly nice to you right?" The mental image of him fighting and defeating my brothers sent cheers through both the ice and blood armies even as the logic army pointed out how dumb that was.

"Well, you're probably sick of older brothers by now right?"

All three armies paused as I realized where he was going with this.

"But if you want, I can be like your older brother, is that okay?"

And just like that, the army of logic took the field. They cut vast swaths of the other armies and soon made themselves the clear winners.

"Sure, why not," I said trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice and hoping that he didn't try to use his empathy sense on me.

"Great," He said cheerfully as he put his fist out to me. "Put er there little sis,"

"Sure thing, big bro," I said as my fist met his. Inside of me the armies of Ice and Blood surrendered. They would stand aside and allow the army of logic to forget about the idea of Triumph Flower and move on.

We said a few more goodbyes and soon we were on the sloped path on the way to Lavaridge.

"So what was that about?" Nikki asked me as I stood on my usual shoulder perch. I gave him a sad look and opened a link to him.

 _"Wally's Gallade is denser than a steel type. Pity Wally's pokémon, because we can get away and they can't,"_

Nikki didn't ask me about it again after that. I wasn't sure if he was content with the answer he got or just felt like he didn't want to know. Either way, the result was the same.

I was left to look up at the sky from my shoulder perch. I imagined the images of Delcatty, Roserade and Garchomp imposed onto the morning sky.

Good luck girls, you were going to need it.


	11. Episode 11

**Episode 11: The Fall**

* * *

I walked down the sloped road with a heavy heart. When Brandon had contacted me to have me meet him at Fallarbor while I was waiting for Brook to unlock her empathy sense, I had decided that I might as well challenge Flannery on the way there. I had confirmed it for Brandon and then hung up.

It was only later that I realized my mistake. Shroomish was weak to fire, Vimilky was weak to fire, Brook did okay against fire. That was two out of three pokémon that didn't do well against the next gym I was going to.

 _"_ _Something wrong?"_ Brook asked as I felt something poke my psychic powers. A sensation that I had quickly realized was Brook using her new Empathy Sense.

The revelation that her Mom was the cause of the issue had been vile, but not unsurprising.

"Just thinking about what I told you earlier," I informed her. She smirked and crossed her arms.

 _"_ _Don't worry, I'll just win the whole thing by myself,"_ She boasted.

I found myself chuckling at her confidence but…

At what point did that cross into arrogance. It was easy to forget that Brook was both young and still undefeated. The only battle I'd ever lost was that two-zero lost where Brook hadn't even gotten the chance to fight.

As harsh as it sounded in my head, a part of me wanted her to lose to someone. Not because I wanted to crush her self-esteem or anything, but because I thought that deflating her pride might do her a world of good.

"What are you guys talking about?" Laura asked as she leaned her head in. I felt a small rush of guilt. Ever since I had gained the ability to talk to Brook, I kept forgetting that said conversations would leave the non-psychic girl out.

"Just… talking about what I told you about after I stopped talking to Brendan yesterday."

She winced, she knew full well what I was talking about. "Yeah, this next gym badge is going to be pretty rough. You sure that you don't want to just go through Mauville instead?"

"No, I'm sure I'll think of something by the time we get there. All I need is a plan and I'm sure I can win,"

Brook gave us a fake cough.

"Brook, just throwing you at the problem and expecting a win is not a plan,"

 _"_ _Well it should be,"_ She argued I laughed and after a quick translation, so was Laura. Brook broke her own silence to laugh as well.

With that out of our system, we kept moving through the Slopped path.

The path took its name from the fact that it ran alongside the slope of the mountain range that ran from Mount Chimney in the north to past Rusturf tunnel in the south. The path had been untamed wilderness only five years ago when Brendan had made his first pokémon journey. Then two years ago it was decided to turn it into a passable route by evening out a small section to turn it into a road. The only thing that they had added after that was a set of wooden stakes that had been planted on the eastern side of the road that they had then tied some ropes between.

The fact that it probably meant that someone had fallen off the side annoyed me for some reason.

Mostly because of how nice and natural the route would have looked without the rope railing. To my left was the mountain range reaching into the sky. We had gone uphill on the way here so were in the section of the mountains where the vegetation started to clear out. All we had to do was look up and we could see the red stone that usually his underneath.

To my right was the slope. The path itself had been cleared and smoothed out so the drop next to it felt steeper than it really was. The few times I had looked down I had seen a sea of dense forest followed by the route that stretched north from Mauville. If I looked really closely, I could see the mountains that contained the desert basin.

As for the area around the path itself, it was surrounded by shrubs and the occasional hardy tree. If anything it reminded me of a smoother and calmer version of the jagged pass that we would be taking after we left Lavaridge.

Oh boy was I not looking forward to taking the jagged path.

But before that, I had a gym leader to worry about.

I started thinking about the fight, but I found my mind wandering. Brendan hadn't been the only person who I had been in contact with while I waited for Brook.

I had also contacted Professor Birch to tell him about my encounter with May back in Rustboro. What he had told me had both comforted and worried me. This new paranoid behavior was not something new for May. She'd been acting a little strange for over two years now. But for some reason, it had really kicked into high gear in the last three months.

The Professor had no clue what had caused it and May insisted that she was fine and that her parents were imagining the changes in her. In fact what I had told them about May thinking she was onto some sort of conspiracy was the most information that they had ever gotten about what was up with her ever.

The fact that May had apparently trusted me that much was a little touching but also worrying. I made a note right then and there to ask Brendan about it when I saw him. Sure he wasn't as close to her as he used to be, but he had to know something. Maybe between what I knew, and what he knew, we could figure something out.

My musings about May were interrupted a little while later by some loud noises coming from further up ahead. The road bent there a little, so whatever was causing the sound was hidden by the mountain. While we couldn't see the source, it was pretty obvious what it was. Those were the sounds of a fight. Laura and I looked at each other and without saying a word, ran off to find out what it was.

"You know I'm worried that this is turning into a bad habit," I told her as we ran," She didn't respond, choosing instead to focus on her running. Which was probably the right option with what we came across when we came round the bend and saw the source of the noise.

There was a sole trainer standing on the path who was commanding a Taillow and an Electrike. Now, normally that would be enough to deal with whatever nature threw at him. However, the problem wasn't nature but a three pokémon that had them surrounded. A Geodude, Arron, and a Poochyena circled around the trainer and his pokémon. Off to the side were a group of people that we're probably these Pokémon's trainers. While we didn't know these people personally, assuming that they were responsible was a pretty decent guess considering that all of them wear wearing the distinct uniform of…

"Team Neo-Magma!" Laura and I yelled in sync.

All five of the trainers and their pokémon stopped to look at us.

"So did you guys like plan that out beforehand or what?" The oldest of the Team Neo-Magma grunts, an older teenager that seemed to be in charge, said with his hands in his pockets.

"It's two words, it's not too hard to synch that by accident," I argued for some reason. I wasn't sure why, but this guy just instantly got on my nerves.

"I guess you're right," He said dismissively. "Listen guys, I don't know how you guys know who we are already, but we're kind of busy. So why don't you guys just along and forgot you ever saw us?"

"Yeah I don't think so," I told him as Brook leaned forward with a savage grin that probably should have worried me. It looked like I knew what pokémon I was picking for this.

"You Neo-Teams are such a pain," Laura sighed as she took out one of her own pokéballs. "Do you guys not have anything better to do then mess with people?"

"You guys don't understand anything," He huffed. "This is supposed to be the part where I ask you to surrender and give your pokémon over, but honestly?" He glared at us. "That guy over there already pissed me off so I think that I'll just crush you guys anyway. Team, stay back. I've got these two handled."

He grabbed a pokéball off his belt and threw it right at us. We both jumped back as a Lairon appeared in front of us.

Laura's eyes narrowed as she suddenly took off running. She circled around the Lairon and took out a pokéball as she joined in on the other fight.

Looks like I was doing this on my own then.

"Okay, maybe not you for this one Brook," I told the pokémon that had almost no moves that worked well on steel types.

 _"_ _I don't need a type advantage to take him,"_ Brook protested as I physically keep her back.

"Maybe but how about a single move that he doesn't resist?"

 _"_ _What about magical leaf?"_

"It's a good move, but it works too slowly. Too risky," I pointed out as Brook gave up and let me grab another pokéball with my other hand. I wasn't sure which ball I got, I figured that Shroomish and Vimilky had about an even chance against something slow like a Lairon.

Shroomish appeared in front of the Lairon and glared at the much larger steel type.

"Okay Shroomish, let's take this guy…"

"Hey hold on for a second,"

I froze as I saw the Neo-magma grunt who was holding his arms in a 't' shaped cross.

"Are you actually calling for a time-out?" I asked not believing this.

"Don't worry it's a short one. So, a kid new trainer with a Ralt's on his shoulder and a Shroomish. Are you that Ralt's kid?"

"So what if I am," I told him as I thought back to my last encounter with Team Neo-Magma. Now that I thought about it, they had called me the Ralt's kid, or at least something similar.

"Well if you are then I got orders about what to do with you. I'm supposed to kick the crud out of you and all of your pokémon and then take back that Shroomish that belongs to us. Probably going take all of your pokémon while I'm at it,"

I kicked myself mentally as the Neo-magma grunt's words brought up some memories in me. I had gotten too comfortable with these guys. When I was just a kid, I remembered seeing the lost walk around Petalburg. Kids and adults alike whose trainer careers were cut short by one of the two teams.

It was a common story, promising trainer is ambushed by one of the teams. They are found the next day injured and all of their pokémon gone. The fall of both teams had led to a lot of those trainers getting reunited with their pokémon. For far too many however, that reunion would never come, their pokémon long since vanished, with no one with any clue where they were.

And here this guy was saying that if he won this battle, I would be next.

"Shroomish," I said as I pointed at Lairon, having decided to just ignore what the teenage Team Neo-Magma grunt said for now. I could let myself worry about it later. "Use bullet seed,"

Shroomish lowered his head as a blast of golden seeds blasted through the air and exploded on Lairon's metal hide. The dust from the blast got swept away by the breeze quickly enough. As it did so, it revealed a perfectly fine Lairon.

It looked like I might have done a little miscalculation.

"That the best you got?" The Neo-Magma grunt said. "Lairon, use stomp,"

The steel type charged forward before rearing back.

"Shroomish, dodge!" I yelled as Shroomish rolled out of the way. Lairon brought his legs down, causing the ground to shake. I tried to not imagine what would have happened if Shroomish hadn't gotten out of the way.

Looks like I had a tough fight on my hands.

* * *

I gulped as Shroomish took on the larger pokémon. I had wanted to go out there to teach the big guy a lesson. But as I watched Shroomish jump around the battlefield, taking the occasional potshot at Lairon, I found another reason.

Watching someone try to squish my mushroom buddy under their weight worried me. Lairon charged and stomped, Shroomish jumping, rolling, or running out of the way just in the nick of time. It was close, way too close. There were even times that I thought that Shroomish was really going to get caught under the metal lizard.

If Nikki didn't have a point about me not really having anything that could hurt this thing, I would have jumped in by now.

I opened a link to my trainer who was watching the fight anxiously.

 _"Stun spore?"_

"No good, it needs a bit of a prep time which this Lairon won't give us. Plus it's too risky for us to risk it not working,"

Lairon stomped the ground underneath him and Shroomish rolled to the side, letting out a few bullet seeds once he was right side up again.

The dust cleared away quickly, revealing an unharmed Lairon.

 _"What about…"_ I tried to think of something my mind gave me nothing but blanks.

"Brook, I don't think we have too many options here besides…" He trailed off as his eyes darted to something, couldn't tell what. "I have a plan. It's a lame plan but its plan,"

 _"It's better than nothing I guess,"_ I told him with a shrug.

"Okay Shroomish," He said as I wondered how 'lame' this plan could be. I mean if it managed to get Shroomish out of this mess, then it had to somewhat decent. "Concentrate of dodging for as long as you can,"

My trainer was right…

" _That's such a lame plan!"_ I made sure to tell him the second after hearing about it.

"That's because we don't have to win, we just have to hold out until help arrives," He whispered to me so that The Neo-Magma grunt wouldn't hear him. Seeing that no further information was coming out of him, I decided to just sit down and watch Shroomish's fight.

My little mushroom buddy was doing pretty well. Now that he was completely focused on dodging, he was getting faster at it. No time wasted on a bullet seed that did nothing meant more time to focus on getting out of the way. My heart pounded as I watched the dance go on.

 _"What the heck is the plan here?"_ I asked Nikki as Shroomish ducked underneath one of the Metal Pokémon's swinging legs. _"He can't keep this up forever,"_

"He doesn't, he just needs to hold out until…"

"Oddish, use stun spore!"

"Taillow, Electrike, use aerial ace and thunderbolt,"

Shroomish backed off and got clear as a red and blue blur smacked into lairon. The hit left the larger pokémon off balance, a perfect target for the bolt of lightning that hit him right afterward. While he was still recovering from that, he got a face full of the golden spores courtesy of Oddish.

"What, but my crew!" The teenage Magma-Grunt said as he turned around. Waiting for him was the sight of all three of the younger grunt's standing around, all of their pokémon out for the count.

"Guys?" He asked. All three of them looked away, not willing to meet his eyes. He growled before grabbing a Pokeball from his belt. He pointed it at his Lairon and yelled. "Team Neo-Magma, retreat for now,"

He recalled his pokémon all the three other grunts did the same. As soon as all of their pokemon were safe and secure, they made a break for it.

 _"Too bad we don't have a way to contain them,"_ I told Nikki while sighing. _"This whole, beat them, let them escape and tell the police thing, it's getting old already,"_

"Have to agree with you on that on," He admitted. "Let's go see how our new friend is doing,"

We walked over to the trainer that we had helped out. It was a young boy, maybe a year younger than Nikki. He was crouched down, looking over his pokémon.

"They okay?" Laura said as she crouched down next to the small human.

"Yeah, they're okay. A little roughed up but okay," He explained as he petted both of his pokémon. "Okay guys, take a bit of a break," He said as he recalled them both. "Name's Victor,"

"Hey I'm Laura and this here is Nikki," Laura said before 'Nicholas' had a chance to say anything.

I knew that I should have felt bad about keeping the whole 'Nikki' thing going, but at this point, I found it too funny to stop.

"So how'd you get caught up in all this?" Nikki asked as I brought up me empathy sense. I grabbed the string, making sure to ignore the phantom emotions that I knew weren't real.

Oh yeah, there was some simmering rage there.

"I have no clue," The other Human admitted. "I was walking to Verdanturf when I got attacked by these guys. Apparently, they wanted me to hand over my pokémon and money for 'the glory of team Neo-Magma," He scoffed. "What a bunch of jerks, trying to scare people by pretending to be a new team Magma,"

Nikki and Laura looked at each other. I had a good guess as to what both of them were thinking.

 _"Might as well tell him. He already knows that much, might as well say the rest,"_ I told Nikki.

"You've got a point Brook," He whispered to me. "Okay, so this might not be the first time we've met these guys,"

"What, these guys have done this whole Neo-Magma thing before?"

"No I mean that we've met people calming to be in Neo-Magma before," He explained as he gave him a few details from the last time we encountered these guys. As he told the story, I noticed Shroomish trailing after us with a downcast face. I made a mental note to talk to him later.

We helped the other trainer out a little more after. Nikki and Laura told him to contact the police once he made it to Verdanturf and to try and contact those two detectives that they knew.

With all that taken care off, we started making our way north again.

A few hours later we made it to a campground. The sky was starting to get dark and with Team Neo-Magma out there, it was probably a good idea to stop in a place here with other trainers nearby. We picked our own little place and made our camp, an activity that I never liked doing. I psychically dove another stake into the ground when I noticed Shroomish walking away towards the cliff edge.

"Is he okay?" Nikki asked as he walked up behind me.

 _"He looked a little down earlier,"_

"Think he's okay?" He said as he looked at Shroomish in concern.

 _"Nikki, I'll go talk to him,"_ I told him telepathically as I jumped down to the ground. _"We'll do your psychic training tomorrow,"_

"Yeah," Nikki said as he watched Shroomish walk away. "We can do this tomorrow. Go see Shroomish," I nodded and went after my mushroom buddy.

"Shroomish, wait up," I told him as I caught up to him.

"Oh, hey Brook," He said, looking down.

"You okay?" I asked him straight out.

"Well," he started before walking away. He stopped in front of the cliff edge and sat down. I followed after him and sat down next to him.

It was a nice view. The moon and the stars were out so there was plenty of light to illuminate the forest below us. The sea of green reflected the light, making swirls of silver as the leaves moved in the breeze. We just sat there for a while as I waited for him to say what was on his mind. After a little while, he finally said it.

"It's," He hesitated and looked away. "I'm getting tired of this,"

Tired of 'this'? Tired of what? Was he talking about traveling with us? That didn't sound right, so maybe he was talking about…

"Are you talking about how those Magma and Aqua idiots keep saying that you're 'their' pokémon?" I said giving my best guess.

"Yeah," He admitted. "I joined up with you guys to get away from having to go with those guys. And I like traveling with you guys but I also thought that I wouldn't have to deal with them anymore,"

"This seems a little extreme. We've only dealt with them like four times," The first time when we caught Shroomish, the battle later that day, the fight in the Treecko grove and just now. I'm pretty sure that was all of them. "You sound like you fight them every day,"

He lowered his gaze, making me worry even more.

"There was a part that I didn't tell you," He said finally.

"What is it?"

"That day we met, that wasn't the first time I met those humans," He sat down on the ground as I did the same. "I was wandering around the week before that. I got spotted by them when I wandered a little too close to the human town." He shuddered in what might have been fear. "They spent almost the entire week tracking me down and chasing me. I couldn't rest without them trying to grab me. Just imagine trying to get a little rest and suddenly a human comes crashing out of the bushes and trying to grab you,"

"So when we met up with you and I offered to take you with us…"

"It was the way out of having to deal with these guys and have a chance to rest for the first time in a week," He said finally.

We both sat there in silence. Nikki walked over after a while. He opened his mouth to say something but I shook my head before he could say anything. He nodded with understanding and backed away.

"So," I finally broke the silence. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to get them to stop chasing me," He admitted. "Traveling with you guys was supposed to fix that and it kind of did. Fighting them every once in a while is better than dealing with them every day, but I'd rather never have to deal with them ever again,"

"Shroomish," I said carefully, "I didn't ask you what you wanted to happen. I asked you what you wanted to do."

He looked up and gave me look that seemed to say 'go on'.

So I did.

"When I decided that I wanted to get out, I got out. I wanted to get away from the person ruining my life and after they pushed me too far, I did it. It was scary and I'm pretty sure I almost died twice," He flinched at the mention of me dying. "But I did it because I dared. So that's what I'm asking you, what do you dare to do?"

He grumbled as he mulled it over in his head. He opened his mouth to give an answer more than once, but he changed his mind and said nothing every time. Finally, he came to his answer.

"I want to fend them off. I want to be able to fend them off by myself,"

Fend them off by himself? Made sense all things considering. But for that, he needed to start training more. Milk was okay, but she really only did the basic training that Nikki had us all do. I was the only one who really pushed themselves more than that. Having a sparring partner offered some new opportunities that I could take advantage of.

"Um, Brook, are you okay," Shroomish suddenly said, breaking me out of my thoughts of training.

"Oh yeah, why?"

"Because you suddenly got a really happy look on your face. What were you thinking about?"

I blushed and admitted to my thinking about how the two of us could train together.

Shroomish got a weird look on his face before breaking out into laughter, something that I'd never really seen him do before.

"What's so funny?" I asked him pretending to be greatly offended. Of course, the fact that I could easily switch to actually offended depending on his answer went unsaid.

"Your first response to learning this big internal problem I'm having is to suggest combat training," He said while laughing. "It's just so you."

I let him get the laughter out even as I rolled my eyes. I led him back to the group soon after.

* * *

We ate a quick breakfast and put our stuff away. After having to deal with those Team Neo-Magma guys from yesterday, I wanted to hurry up and get to Lavaridge. Especially since we probably weren't going to get lucky and meet up with another trainer on the road there. That last fight would not have gone down that way if Victor's two pokémon had not been there.

Which was why Laura and I were walking up the road at the crack of dawn.

"And to think," I said to break the silence. I waited for Laura to turn around before pointing at the pokéballs on my chest. "These guys get to keep sleeping,"

Laura chuckled before nodding. "To be fair, we are the ones who get to play mission control while they do the fighting,"

"I guess that's true. To be fair, I don't think things would go well if we switched the rolls." I chuckled to myself at the thought of fighting myself while Brook gave commands.

"I'd think if it came down to it, I'd win," Laura said cheekily.

"You sure about that? You might be bigger than me, but size isn't everything,"

"No, I'm just pretty sure that Oddish would make a better trainer then Brook,"

I thought back to what Brook said yesterday about throwing her out and expecting a win counted as a plan.

"If Brook was the trainer, I'd get annihilated every fight," I commented, making Laura snort with laughter.

"Yeah, you would wouldn't you?"

 _"Okay, I am not just going to take this,"_

There was a bright flash as one of the pokéballs opened up. I closed my eyes to the flash. When I looked back, a miffed looking Brook was standing on my shoulder with her arms on her waist and leaning forward.

"Looks like she heard us huh?" Laura said, trying to hide a chuckle.

"Yeah, she did," I said as I went to rub the top of her head. She scowled and knocked my finger aside.

 _"I would make an amazing trainer,"_ She claimed. _"We'd win like every fight._

"And would your plans consist of throwing me at our opponents and expecting a win?" Instead of getting embarrassed as I expected, Brook puffed up and scoffed.

 _"Of course not,"_ She sounded like she was explaining the simplest concept in the world. _"After all, you're not me,"_

And there it was, that pride again. That pride that worried me. I decided to just let it go, no reason to make this trip awkward when we had some Team Magma wannabes skulking around.

We stopped for lunch, and for dinner as well a few hours later. I was in such a hurry, that I even cut short the usual training session I had with my pokémon.

Brook was less than happy about that, swearing that we could easily handle whatever Neo-Magma threw at us. When I told her that I didn't want to risk it, she just responded by saying that she'd finish the training in their common area.

I felt a little bad about treating them like this. Especially after Brook explained how Shroomish wanted to get strong enough to protect himself from the Neo teams. It was hard to not pity the mushroom once I knew more of his story.

Fortunately, I think Shroomish understood why we were in a hurry. Vimilky didn't really care either way but had seen the Lairon and had no interest in fighting something like that.

We reached the second campground with plenty of time to spare before sundown. Something that I was perfectly fine with considering our situation.

 _"What was even the point of rushing to get here?"_ Brook commented from my shoulder as we walked over to a free campsite.

"The idea is that Team Neo-Magma can't attack us in the middle of the night without alerting all the other trainers here," I explained to her again, this time with the added benefit of being able to point at the three other trainers who were also setting up their tents.

 _"Yeah, but how do you know that those three will help us. Team Neo-Magma could easily attack us here and take advantage of the confusion."_

"Brook I know you're just looking for reasons why we should stop running and fight them head-on."

 _"But we can totally take them though!"_ She argued, not even trying to hide her intentions at this point.

"Brook stop, I'm not going to risk you guys in a fight I'm not sure we can win,"

 _"What do you mean 'not sure we can win'? You have me on our side, what else do you need to convince you that we can mop the floor with these guys,"_

"Brook get it through your thick head! You are not strong enough!" I yelled, my patience having reached an end.

" _Not strong enough, was I not strong enough when I got you the two gym badges in your pocket? Was I not strong enough when I handled those Team Neo-Aqua idiots? At what point since we started traveling have I been not strong enough? Unless you haven't been paying attention, I've won each and every fight I've been through!"_

"And that's great, but just because you've won every fight so far, but that won't be true forever," I snapped. "One day you're going to go up against someone who's going to be stronger then you and if you're not careful, it's going to be someone who wants to actually hurt you!"

I was going to keep going, but I stopped. Brook was glaring at me, her red eyes burning. He growled as she dissolved into light and went back into her pokéball. I unclipped the pokéball from my chest and looked into it.

I'd never seen Brook look at me like that. It was a little terrifying, to be honest.

I glanced up and lit up when I noticed that everyone else was looking at me. The second I met their eyes, they all looked away and did their best to look busy and uninterested. I rolled my eyes and went back to setting up camp.

"Go ahead," I sighed after a short while. "Say what you want to say,"

"Don't you think you were a little too harsh on her?" Laura asked as she finished the last of the preparations. "I mean, I can't hear her directly but I can figure out what you guys are talking about by paying attention,"

"I'm just, worried. I have a point. She's going to lose a fight someday. It might not be tod…" I glanced upwards at the sky that was already darkening into night. "It might not be tomorrow, it might not be the day after that, but she will lose eventually,"

"And you think she's not ready for that?" Laura asked as she sat down on one of the logs surrounding the fire pit.

"I know she's not ready for that," I told her as I sat down across from her.

"I think you were still a little too harsh with her,"

"Yeah I think so too," I looked over at my other two pokémon who were looking at me. "What do you guys think, did I go too far?"

Shroomish gave me the answer I expected, a swift nod in agreement. Vimilky, on the other hand, surprised both Shroomish and me by shaking her head. Shroomish spoke a few words to her which Vimilky replied to with a few words of her own. They went back and forth for a little before the stopped, Shroomish donning a pensive face while Vimilky ginned smugly.

"So you think I had just the right amount of harsh?" I asked Vimilky and again she shook her head. "Wait so if it wasn't too harsh, and it wasn't the right amount of harsh…" I said piecing together what she meant. "Are you saying that you think, I wasn't harsh enough?"

Vimilky finally nodded as she grabbed her portion of the food and started chowing down. It didn't look like I would be getting any more of her for now.

Seeing that the conversation was over, for now at least, I sat down to eat myself. A few bites in and I realized something. I unclipped Brook's pokéball and set it down in the tent. I put her food out next to it. I was still angry with her, and she probably still with me. That didn't mean that I was going to take away her dinner.

When I came back, the food was gone and the pokéball had moved slightly from where I left it.

* * *

It was the morning of our third and final day on the trip and I was still fuming. Who did he think he was, saying that I wasn't strong enough? I'd show him. Watch, next gym fight I was going to take on all of the gym leader's pokémon by myself. That'll prove who's strong enough.

For now though I was just content to stay in either my pokéball or the common area. I was in the middle of some light target practice when Milk came up to me.

"Hey there Brook, you training hard?" She asked even though she knew the answer.

"You know what me going hard looks like, and this isn't it," I pointed at the targets hanging in the air. "Look, they're not even moving,"

"So what, you just making sure you don't get rusty or…" She left the rest of it unsaid, knowing full well that I could guess what she was talking about.

"Okay yeah, I'm doing this to blow off some steam," I admitted as I fired a confusion at another target. The bolt of psychic power hit its mark as the center of the target caved. The wooden dish shattered in what had been a satisfying crunch yesterday.

Now it didn't feel the same.

"Listen, Brook, you're a decently smart Ralts. You know that Nikki doesn't think you're weak. You know that he's just worried about us."

"Yeah, I know. It's just frustrating,"

"Brook, can you tell me the truth about something?"

"Sure what about?" What could she be wanting to ask me?

"I saw that Lairon that Shroomish was fighting. Did you really think you could beat that thing?"

"Of course I think I could have. Don't tell me you don't think I could have managed it?"

Milk watched me silently, as though she was thinking real hard on her answer.

"All I'm saying," She said finally "Is that I wouldn't have wanted to fight it and I can't imagine someone who would,"

I didn't know how to respond to something like that, so I didn't. I kept silent as another batch of targets appeared in front of me.

"Brook, you don't have to listen to anything I say. I'm not the boss of you and to be honest I'm really glad I'm not the boss of you,"

"Hey!" I snapped my head at her, that last line having brought me out of my silence.

"But if you are going to listen to me, then listen to this. Nikki was only trying to look out for you. You're lucky that he's your trainer and not me because I would have acted way worse,"

"So why don't you?"

"Because like I said," She said as she turned around and walked off towards the connector between the common area and her own pokéball. "I'm not the boss of you,"

With that said she jumped into the connector and in a flash, she was gone.

I guess my last conversation with Nikki could have gone better. It made sense for him to be worried. The little he said about the old Magma and Aqua teams did make them sound terrifying. If I was any other pokémon, I'd be freaked out too.

But I wasn't any other pokémon. I was Brook the Ralts, the undefeated champion of two gyms and future strongest pokémon in the world. I knew what I had to do. I had to prove to Nikki that these Neo-Magma chumps were nothing to fear. And of course, the best way to do that would be to crush them under my feet.

I smirked as a new round of targets appeared. I took aim and fired, the crunching sound once again satisfying.

* * *

It was around noon when they caught up to us.

When we came around the bend, I didn't think twice about the small groove of trees coming up. If I had been asked about it, then maybe I would have said that it was a nice little place. Maybe I would have even stopped here for lunch if we weren't in a hurry. We passed underneath them and I almost didn't notice it.

But I got lucky, and I did notice.

I didn't hear them at first, at least not directly. No the first thing I noticed was the sound of some rustling leaves.

The slopped path could be pretty windy but the breeze had died down for now. I grabbed Laura by the shoulder.

"Wait," I said as I looked upwards towards the trees that had made the sound. Among the branches, I made out what looked like four figures watching from the behind the leaves.

"Run," I whispered as pushed Laura to give her a running start. I followed right after her.

"We've been spotted!" I heard one of them yell from above us. It was a voice that I wasn't familiar with, so it was one of the three younger grunts who had spoken.

"Forget about chasing them," A much more familiar voice said. "Just us your pokémon to cut them off," The older grunt said as all four jumped down from the tree and onto the road behind us.

The other three Team Neo-Magma grunts didn't say anything else, instead just pointing at us and calling out their pokémon.

"Geodude,"

"Poochyena,"

"Aron,"

"Go!" They all said at once as they tossed their pokéballs. All three pokémon appeared in front of us, cutting us off from escape.

"Good luck getting out of this one kids," The older grunt said as he tossed out his own pokéball. His own Lairon appeared in front of him, ready to go. "This time you don't have another trainer to help you,"

I grabbed all three of the pokéballs on my chest and threw them out. If losing here meant having all of my pokémon taken away, then there was no way I wasn't going to give them the chance to decide their own fate. Laura must have thought the same because she sent out both of her own pokémon to help.

 _"Alright, let's do this!"_ Brook suddenly yelled both aloud and telepathically. She pointed both of her arms downwards and boosted right at the Lairon.

"Brook wait!" I yelled knowing that it was too late. "Don't go on your own," I said just as I noticed a small green and tan blur following after her.

 _"I've got Shroomish,"_ Brook said back. _"Don't worry Nikki, We'll beat this thing and prove to you that these guys are nothing,"_ She said as she came out of her burst and shot a confusion at the Lairon. The bolt hit the Pok1mon and did no visible damage. _"You won't have to be afraid anymore,"_

This, this could end badly.

I looked down at the only other pokémon next to me, Vimilky. "Vimilky, go help out Laura with the three pokémon blocking out path," She nodded and ran back to help in that battle, leaving me to face the Lairon with Brook and Shroomish.

Brook landed on the ground as Shroomish came to a stop next to her. The two of them stared down the Lairon. The steel type was looking at the two of them in what looked like anticipation.

"You sure you want to send one of your pokémon away. You're going to need all the help you can get against me," The older grunt boasted as he held his hand out. "Lairon, crush these guys,"

The Lairon charged forward at Brook and Shroomish, causing both to jump away in opposite directions. "Brook, try to keep them busy, fight evasively. Shroomish, you just hang back for now," I told them.

 _"Nice to see that you've come around,"_ Brook said smugly as she boosted around the Lairon, keeping them from getting a good hit on her. _"But are we really doing this plan again? I know it worked last time but it's still a lame plan,"_

I rolled my eyes, we apparently still weren't done with our conversation it seemed. She could at least try to act a little seriously.

I held in my breath as I watched Brook dance around the much larger and sturdier pokémon. Constantly, using Boost to get out of the way of its stomps and charges. It was even more nerve-wracking than watching Shroomish do the same. The little mushroom couldn't take a hard beating, that was Vimilky's thing, but he could take a hit way better then Brook could.

Shroomish had had room for error in his fight, Brook had nothing of the sort. One hit and she was going down. But I needed the most agile member of our team to keep the Lairon busy. I needed Brook to make an opening for Shroomish.

Brook landed right in front of the Lairon who reared back before slamming their legs down. Instead of dodging to the left or right like I would have expected, she aimed her arms downwards and boosted right at the Lairon's face. She cut off the boost just as she got close, and threw her hands out. She latched onto one of the holes in the steel types face and grabbed on.

The Lairon roared in rage as Brook grabbed onto his face, blocking his sight. Without their sight, they were wide open, exactly the chance I had been waiting for.

"Shroomish, use stun spore. Brook, boost out of the way of the spores,"

Brook took a moment to say anything something to the Lairon that sent him into a rage. Brook just laughed as she let out the strongest confusion she could, blasting her away from Lairon just as the spores began to rain down. The Lairon roared as it started freezing up, the spores locking up his muscles.

Brook landed next to Shroomish. She said something to him which Shroomish nodded at. She placed both of her hands up while Shroomish lowered his head.

Seeing what they were planning, I yelled out the cue to fire.

"Brook us magical leaf, Shroomish use bullet seed. Both of you give it everything you have!" Shroomish unloaded with the strongest bullet seed barrage I had ever seen him use while Brook gathered up energy in her arms. It formed into a swarm of leaves that hung above Brook's head. She threw her arms forward, sending all of the leaves to the immobile Lairon who was already taking a pounding from the bullet seed.

The already present swarm of seeds was soon joined by a new swarm of glowing leaves. The combined force of both swarms was enough to create a ton of tiny explosions, each one making a modest smoke cloud.

The effect of all of those attacks was that a massive smoke cloud erupted from Lairon, covering both pokémon and criminal trainer.

The three of us stood ready as the smoke cleared. We weren't about to take a chance and lower our guard now.

A wise choice because when the smoke cleared, both the Lairon and his trainer were still up. The trainer looked pissed that we hadn't gone down easily. Meanwhile, his Lairon looked at all of us with a look that seemed to say 'now I'm angry.'

"You have some strong pokémon there kid," The older grunt told me. I decided not to respond. "Maybe I should stop going easy on you,"

I gulped as he took out a second pokéball from his pocket.

"Time to make this a real double battle am I right?" The teen grunt tossed the pokéball so that it landed next to his Lairon. The ball opened and then there was a Mightyena next to the Lairon. To make things worse, it looked like the Lairon was starting to break out of his paralysis.

The fully evolved dark type and mid-stage steel-ground both flashed us some sharp smiles.

"Okay so brook, try to keep Lairon in check. Shroomish, you go for…"

"Mightyena, on the Ralts! Lairon, handle that mushroom!" The grunt cut me off as both of his pokémon came at us. Brook boosted upwards out of the path of the dark type's jaws while Shroomish went back to his old game of avoiding the Lairon.

It was a game that I rather he not play.

* * *

"Man, you're really looking for a beating aren't you? I mean are you even trying to hit me. I'm starting to wonder if those fangs are just for show," I told the overgrown mutt as I once again boosted out of the way if her jaws. For as slick as she looked, she really wasn't that fast.

"Then why don't you hold still for a second brat. Let me show you how I can use them to break bones."

I made a humming sound like I was thinking it over. I wasn't of course, but I needed to put up appearances if I wanted to make her mad.

"Yeah sure, why not?" I said as I landed on the ground and stood motionless.

The Mightyena raised an eyebrow.

"Are you mocking me?"

"What? No, not at all. You said you wanted to show me what your fangs could do so I'm giving you a chance to show me,"

"Brook, what are you doing?" Nikki screamed at me, making me roll my eyes.

 _"Relax, it's all going to plan, focus on Shroomish,"_ I told him telepathically as the Mightyena circled around me, testing my reaction to see if I was serious about letting her hit me.

"Time to go give you a lesson in pain you brat." She suddenly announced as she charged right at me. I smirked before aiming straight down and boosting at the last second. The only lesson she'd be teaching is a lesson on how to chew on air.

Oh, that was a good one. Better use it now while it's still fresh.

"Looks like the only lesson you'll, be teaching is how to chew on air, you mangy mutt," I yelled as I sailed over her.

To be honest, I had no clue what 'mangy' even meant. But what I did know, was that it could be used as an insult on canine pokémon.

Well, I guess it, didn't really matter. The mightyena was snarling in rage, so it had worked and that was good enough for me.

* * *

I was going to say it outright, I had no clue what Brook was doing. I kind of got the basic gist. Make your opponent angry so that they make mistakes you can take advantage of.

The only issue with that was that Brook didn't really have a move that could capitalize on an opening like the kind she was trying to make. Magical leaf took too long to set up against a fast opponent like a Mightyena. Disarming voice would do too little damage, even with the type advantage. Plus Brook had to stop moving to use it and I was sure that she understood that that was too big a risk.

Of course, the perfect move for the situation, confusion, had no effect on dark types.

Despite our earlier argument, I found myself needing to trust Brook. I forced myself to divert my attention from that fight to the one going on next to it.

Shroomish was playing the same game of keep away as Brook. Or at least, the same base game. Brook's version sounded like it had way more taunting on it then the silent affair Shroomish was going through.

It was all just so frustrating. Neither one of my pokémon could do major damage to their opponent, but both said opponents were to slow to get a hit in.

I glanced back behind me. Last time I had gotten bailed out Laura and Victor's pokémon.

As I took stock of the battle I realized that no help would be coming any time soon.

Oddish and Doduo had teamed up to fight the Geodude and Aron. They were holding their own well enough, even if the Aron was doing a good job at keeping Oddish from getting a good hit on their Geodude.

An even fight that didn't look like it was going to end anytime soon.

Vimilky on the other hand, looked like she had her hands full with the Poochyena. The dark type was running circles around her, Vimilky relegated to taking the defense.

I wasn't worried that Vimilky was about to go down anytime soon. The few bites and scratches the Poochyena managed to land left Vimilky unscathed. It was clear however, that Vimilky wasn't able to get her own hits in.

She'd be able to tough things out until she got help. But I shouldn't expect her to be able to help out with either of these fights any time soon.

I looked back to Shroomish. He was still doing the dance to avoid the Lairon, but I could tell that he was getting tired.

Shroomish jumped to the side as Lairon swung their head. He must have landed wrong, because he froze when his foot hit the ground.

And that little freeze was all it took.

"Shroomish!" I yelled as Lairon reared back and stomped on him. Brook yelled something too, before boosting right at the Lairon's face and shooting a confusion at point blank range.

"Looks like it's mad," The Neo-Magma chuckled as Lairon flinched slightly at the attack and otherwise didn't move. "Don't worry about the pokémon, its fine," The grunt said as the Lairon shifted to show Shroomish under their feet. "I made sure to make it real clear to the big guy that this mission was a strict capture mission,"

Brook landed in front of me and glared as the mightyena took a spot next to the Lairon. I never knew that something with a snout could look that smug.

"So what are you going to do now kid," The grunt said as he walked up to the Lairon and patted them on the back. "Of you give up now and just hand over your pokémon, we'll go easy on you,"

I had to think of something. I couldn't let things end like this. I had to…

Was Shroomish chanting?

* * *

"It won't end like this. It won't end like this," Shroomish kept chanting in wheezing pain as his eyes fluttered.

I clenched my fist. He was having trouble keeping his eyes open.

"It won't end like this. It won't end like this."

You're right Shroomish, it won't end like this. I was going to get you out of this and then we were going to mop the floor with these guys.

I raised my hand and got ready to do something that I would probably regret. Warmth had pounded it into my head that humans were nowhere near as durable as us. As such, we weren't supposed to use attacks on them. Of course a part of me felt as though this could be a justifiable exception.

But just as I started charging up for the attack, I saw something that made me stop. Under Lairon's foot, Shroomish was glowing a pure shade of white.

"What is, no way…" The Neo-Magma grunt trailed off.

"It can't be, but it is," Nikki said before breaking into a mad grin. "Looks like we have a chance to turn this around!"

As Nikki talked, Shroomish grew in size. He grew and grew, and he kept growing until Lairon had to choose between getting off or being flipped over onto his back. The steel type grumbled as he choose the former and backed away a little. The mightyena and human matched him and took a step back as well.

By the time he finished growing, he was even taller than Nikki. Then as quickly as it had started, the white glow faded, giving me a good look at Shroomish. The stumpy little Mushroom had been replaced with a tall, lanky mushroom with a long tail. Om both of his feet were long red claws and on each arm was what looked like a pair of pincers.

I knew what this was, Shroomish had evolved.

The lucky mushroom had done it before me.

"So you got lucky and had one of your pokémon evolve mid battle, big deal. You're still going down," The grunt said, looking not as sure of himself as he had a few moments ago.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Nikki said, having found some steel for his spine. "After all, you do know that Shroomish gets a new typing after evolving right?"

Shroo… I guess it would be Breloom now, vanished in a puff of smoke. A split second later, he reappeared to the side of Mightyena, delivering a devastating punch onto her side. The dark-type cried out as she was sent down.

"What?" The grunt yelled.

"So fast," I yelled too.

"He's almost too fast to see," I heard Milk freak as she fought the Poochyena.

"Breloom, show them the Mach punch of a fighting type!" Nikki commanded, making Breloom break out into a mild smirk.

Breloom vanished again, now in front of Lairon. Before the metal lizard even had a second to react, he punched it right in the face. Lairon staggered back from the force of the blow.

"Now follow, up, keep the pressure." Nikki urged

"Understood," Breloom replied as he ran forward. His voice was deeper than it had been before he changed. He ran slightly past Lairon before spinning on delivering a powerful punch into Lairon's back.

"Lairon don't let him get you," The grunt tried to interject only for Breloom to step forward and deliver a quick jab with his other pincer.

The cry of pain coming out of Lairon told me all that I needed to know.

He was about to go for another hit when he saw something that freaked him out. Wonder what it was.

"Brook look out!" Nikki yelled out. I looked behind me and came face first with a mouth full of teeth.

"Brook, duck!" I heard Breloom's new voice say. I didn't bother hesitating. I ducked as a green blur sailed overhead. The blur hit the mightyena and revealed itself to be Breloom delivering a kick to the dark-type's face.

"Nice job Breloom," I cheered as the dark-type went flying back into the Grunt.

"No, not Breloom," He said as he watched the Neo-Magma grunt pushed the Mightyena off him. "I've figured it out, my name is Khesen,"

The grunt panicked as he recalled his downed pokémon. Khesen put up his fists and narrowed his eyes. The Neo-Magma guy looked conflicted for a moment before also recalling Lairon.

"Team Neo-Magma, fall back for now!" He yelled as he started running. The other three grunts recalled their own pokémon and made a run for it.

Both Nikki and I walked up to Khesen as the Neo-magma guys ran off into the distance. I boosted and jumped up onto Nikki's shoulder. As I landed, I saw Milk running over to join us.

 _"Those were the guys you were so afraid of? We took care of those guys no problem,"_ I said telepathically to Nikki while also saying it out loud for Khesen and Milk. I had no idea why all three of them started rolling their eyes at me, it was a good point.

"You did a good job, Breloom," Nikki said, trying his best to ignore my solid logic.

Khesen flinched as I realized that translator duty fell to me once more.

 _"He says his name is Khesen now,"_ I explained to Nikki who nodded in understanding.

"Finally, figured your name out then? Good for you Khesen," Nikki said before trying to reach up and pat Khesen on the shoulder. Something that he had a bit of an issue with now that my little mushroom buddy was taller than my trainer.

Eventually, Nikki gave up and simply declared that they still had a few more hours until we made it Lavaridge. To celebrate his newfound height, Khesen decided to walk alongside us for the rest of the way there.

A few hours later, and we emerged from the mountains into Lavaridge Town. A town nestled into the mountains that held some famous hot springs, an herbal remedies store, and most important for me, a Gym where I would crush and conquer our way into a third Gym Badge.


	12. Episode 12

**Episode 12: The Fall**

As I stood outside the Lavaridge Gym, I couldn't help but feel like I had made a terrible mistake. I glanced down at the three pokéballs on my chest. First was Khesen, my powerful new Breloom that evolved yesterday. He had gained a new fighting type, but he was still a grass type weak to fire. Then there was Vimilky, my Steel-fairy type who was also weak to fire. Not only that but she was a tank who preferred to take hits rather than avoid them. Not a good plan against fire.

And then there was Brook. My starter and strongest pokémon as well as a powerful psychic who had no issue with fire types. In a normal situation, she'd be the perfect solution for this gym.

But there was still another issue. The issue of Brook's growing overconfidence. She had a point, she was so far undefeated and had been the reason we had won our first two badges. She had also been right that we had indeed been able to take on and beat Team Neo-Magma.

But we beat Neo-Magma because we got lucky with Khesen evolving. And all the victories in the world didn't mean that Brook was invincible. Epically since we were about to take on our third Gym Battle.

The first two gym badges were always the easiest. The first was meant to be a test to see if the trainer had a basic understanding of how to command pokémon. It was meant to be easy and only really gave me a challenge because Brawly had decided to throw out a pokémon that I had never seen before. The second was meant to test the trainer a little further and make sure the first fight was no fluke.

Those first two badges were all someone really needed to get through the rest of their life. If you had those, you could handle any pokémon your workplace might find fit to give you. But the badge after those, the third badge?

That was the one meant to separate the majority of the population from the few who wanted to go battle with their all. After the first two, there was a giant leap of difficulty that left many broken dreams in their wake. The number that I always heard passed around is forty percent. Only forty percent of trainers that started out managed to get their third gym badge.

Flannery was already taking on some challengers who had asked for a battle late yesterday, so I had about an hour minimum to kill before our fight.

And the only way I could think to spend it was to spend it waiting outside the gym.

 _"_ _Standing out here isn't going to make the time pass by any faster,"_ I heard Brook say in my head. I looked away, trying to not look at the tiny Ralts who was standing to the side with the rest of my pokémon. Brook and Vimilky were both standing on a stone bench while Khesen stood a bit further back, leaning on a tree with his arms crossed. How he did so with that long tail behind him I had no clue.

Grass-types were weird. Now that Khesen was human-sized and had arms that were a lot more noticeable.

 _"_ _But you know what would make the time go by faster?"_ Brook asked as she said the same thing aloud. It was a trick that she was getting better at doing. I liked it, made me feel more included in their conversations.

"I swear if you say going to the…"  
 _  
"Going to the freaking hot springs,"_ Brook threw her hands up. _"_ _Come on, it sounds amazing. It's like a warm shower, but it's a bath. And it's heated by a volcano,"_ She yelled while pointing to Mt. Coronet.

"Brook, for the last time, we'll go to the hot spring after the match." I tried to explain to her again. I had long since lost count of the times that I had told her this. "How are you this calm?"

 _"_ _How are you freaking out this much?"_ She rolled her eyes. _"_ _As long as we all do our best, there's no way we could lose,"_

Her confidant smirked filled me with dread.

"Oh this is not going to end well," I whispered to myself. I sighed as I took out my pokénav. I did have a long time, maybe I should do something else to kill time. "You guys want to walk around a bit to see some more of Lavaridge?"

My pokémon cheered, happy at the idea. Well, Brook and Vimilky cheered. Khesen gave a small smile and nodded his head instead.

A few minutes later and we were walking the streets of Lavaridge. Me in the center, Khesen walking on my right, Vimilky walking on my left, and Brook standing on my left shoulder. We probably looked like quite the crowd, but at this point, I was too busy being nervous about the gym battle to care.

Now a part of me thought about going to the famous herbal remedy store that I knew was somewhere here in Lavaridge. So when I asked a random person how to get there, I was pretty bummed when he told me that it was on the other side of town.

So now I had to find something else to do to kill an hour.

 _"_ _Maybe we go buy some ice cream?"_ Brook suggested.

"That sounds good, I could go for some ice cream. Now how do we find a shop?" I said as I started looking around us. While I didn't see an ice cream store, I did see a small crowd gathering around the central square. "Want to see what's going on over there?"

The rest of my team agreed and we were walking over to the crowd.

As we got closer, it became increasingly clear what it was that had caused the crowd.

"Linoone, use slash."

"Griff, dodge out of the way."

As to be expected, the cause of the crowd was a pokémon battle. In particular, it looked like it was a match between a younger girl with a Golbat and an older girl with a Linoone who looked strangely familiar.

The Linoone jumped and despite Golbat's attempts to dodge, Linoone managed to land a savage looking slash on them. The Golbat screeched and went down.

"Griff no!" The younger girl ran forward and picked her Golbat up. He comforted them as she rubbed the top of their head. After a few moments, she took out the Golbat's pokéball. "You did the best you could, return."

The Golbat vanished back into their pokéball.

The trainer who lost got up and walked over to the winning trainer.

"Hey good match, you beat me pretty good," She said as she went for a handshake. The older trainer looked at the hand and didn't move.

"You should train your pokémon harder," She said coldly as she started walking past her with her Linoone by her side. "Beating them was easy. You're too soft for their own good,"

I winced at the blatant disrespect. It wasn't every day that I saw the handshake refuse plus the walk past with disparaging comment. This was some next level disrespect. Levels of disrespect that and the older trainer was walking right towards me.

She stopped in front of me and narrowed her eyes.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" She asked as she scratched her chin. I suddenly felt really uncomfortable as she looked me over. "Oh I know, you're that trainer on the boat who lost to that loser with a Metang,"

Oh, she was that trainer with a Linoone that fought in the tournament on the boat.

Wait, loser with a Metang?

"He was a loser?" I asked, knowing that I was probably not focusing on the right part of the conversation.

"Yeah. I mean if I was in his place, that Metang and Mawile fight would have been a lot shorter and much more brutal," She paused before giving me another judging glare. "You have potential kid, more then she does anyway," She said as she pointed back to the younger trainer who was looking pretty steamed.

I said nothing, not wanting to risk angering the other trainer even more by saying something like 'thanks'.

With that said, the older trainer walked off, Her Linoone giving us a nasty looking grin as they followed. The rest of the crowd dispersed soon after.

The other trainer walked up to me with an irritated look on her face.

"Wow was she terrifying or what?" I asked her as she stood next to me and watched the older trainer walk behind a building.

"Of all the stuck up, do you know her? What's her name, I want a rematch,"

"Well not really, you see," I told her how I had competed in the same tournament as her a while back. "So I have no idea what her name is. I'm pretty sure the announcer said it but at this point, I don't really remember,"

"Well that's too bad," The trainer crossed her arms and scowled. "Still leaves me pissed off though,"

"Yeah I can imagine, what she did was pretty messed up."

"Thanks, it means a lot that someone else thinks that," She unfolded her arms and held one out to me. "My name's Melissa what's yours?"

I had to admit, a part of me was tempted to look away, not shake her hand, and walk past her without saying my name. But the moment passed and I shook her hand to not be a jerk.

"My name's Nicholas. I'm here to challenge Flannery for the Heat Badge,"

"Nice, as a Lavaridge native, I kind of hope she takes you down hard and fast," She laughed.

Brook scoffed, catching Melissa's attention.

"Oh, and I haven't even said hi to you yet, sorry,"

 _"_ _She thinks I'm mad about her not saving hi to me,"_ Brook told me. _"_ _That's adorable,"_

"I don't think she's mad about that part," I told Melissa as I rubbed the top of Brook's head. "Her name's Brook and she a proud little Ralts who is greatly offended by the idea that she could ever lose a fight,"

Brook nodded and turned her nose at Melissa who laughed at her antics.

"And these two are Vimilky, my Mawile, and Khesen, my Breloom," I said, introducing the rest of my team.

"Oh wow, you nicknamed all of them?" She said as she leaned down to inspect Vimilky. "I thought that I was the only one who did that," She suddenly frowned. "But these are all… Hey, do you have any other pokémon?"

"That's right," I confirmed for her as she reminded me of how, tricky, this coming fight was going to be.

"You do know that Flannery is a fire–type trainer, right?"

"Oh I know, I know way too well," I told her as I felt the worry come back. "I'm on my way to meet someone in Fallarbor and decided, hey Lavaridge is on the way, let's try to get the badge since I'm passing through anyway," I looked at my three pokémon before pointing to them. "And that's when I realized that I had the worst possible team to fight Flannery with type wise."

"Wow, that is some terrible luck. Oh well, good luck with your match anyway. Sounds like you're going to need it. Well, I need to get to the pokécenter and get Griff here some help,"

We exchanged pokénav numbers and soon she was gone.

 _"_ _I still say you're freaking out over nothing,"_ Brook argued as we watched Melissa leave. _"_ _We have this in the bag, I don't have a type disadvantage so I can go all out. And be honest, do you really need anything besides that?"_

"Not completely, your fairy moves are resisted by fire types,"

 _"_ _You mean the fairy moves that I barely use because they take too long to activate?"_

Vimilky squawked something to Brook that managed to get the Ralt's to look ashamed for once. She chirped something back and once again I was out of the loop.

Well, Vimilky was the one who had taught Brook to use her fairy typing in the first place. Maybe it was about that?

Khesen walked forward and said something to Brook. Brook's eye widened and I felt her open a connection to me.

 _"_ _Khesen says we've been walking around for a while. Should we start heading back to the gym?"_

I took out my pokénav and checked the time. We hadn't been wandering around that long, but with the time it would take to walk back plus the fact that I wanted to be there a little early…

"Okay then, let's get going," I told my team as I started heading towards the gym.

As we walked, I tried to fight down the feelings of dread in the pit of my stomach. No, I had to be confident in myself, and in my pokémon.

Maybe Brook had the right idea. For all of her pride, she did have a point in that worrying about it wasn't going to help. I had to go in ready to fight for victory.

* * *

The Lavaridge gym was an impressive sight to behold. The outside was a weird looking wooden building that Nikki assured me was an old style that people didn't use any more. It was huge, but maybe the more impressive part was that it seemed to be built into the mountain behind it.

When we walked into the Gym, I suddenly learned why it was so large.

"Welcome to the Lavaridge Hot Springs Inn and Pokémon Gym. Are you here to check in or challenge the Gym Leader?"

"Hello there. I'm Nicholas Maple, I came here about an hour ago," Nikki explained as I suddenly regretted not paying attention to my surroundings when we came in here the first time. Would have been cool to stay here instead of the pokécenter if we could have afforded it. I would have to ask Milk or Khesen when I next saw them. Nikki had recalled them into their pokéballs when we had come into the gym.

"Oh yes, the last receptionist put you into the system. Says here that your battle will be starting shortly. Please wait in the waiting room,"

She used one of her hands to motion to one of the doors behind her. Nikki thanked her and in a few moments, we were in the waiting room.

 _"Think that Laura will make it on time?"_ Brook asked as I sat down on a small bench. Laura had said that she would meet us there after she got out from the pokécenter. Hopefully, we would get out there and see her in the stands.

"Nicholas, you're up," A guy came into the waiting room wearing what looked like a red robe. Nikki suddenly got up from the bench, forcing me to grab onto him so I wouldn't fall.

"You ready for this Brook?" He asked me foolishly. Of course I was ready. I told him as much, but for some reason, he only gave a small frown. Was he still worried, because I was going to crush this so I didn't get why he was so worried?

We walked out into the arena and the first thing I thought was that we had somehow missed the arena and had instead wandered into a giant oven.

The second was that I know knew why the gym had been built into the mountain. The arena was a huge cave that looked like it had been carved out from the mountain. Behind us was the other side of the wooden section of the building that I had seen outside. Looking up I could see plenty of little balconies for the inn guests to watch the fights from. Guess that being able to watch the gym battles was part of the inn experience.

"Greeting Trainer!" Nikki jumped and almost threw me off a booming voice echoed inside the cave. I steadied myself and then scanned the room for the source of the voice.

I didn't have to look for very long.

Standing in the center of the arena was a taller Human with long red hair that was done in a gigantic tail that almost reached her legs. She was wearing what looked like green pants with a matching thin green jacket and a red undershirt that showed her stomach. She had her arms crossed over her chest with her legs spread out into a wide stance. On her face was a wide toothy grin and…

A pair of black glass objects held in what looked like a frame that made her look like the coolest person to ever live.

"I want," I muttered to myself as I looked at the magnificent object on her face.

"So you have come to challenge me? You have some guts to challenge Flannery of the Lavaridge gym! Tell me your name so that I can know the name of my challenger!" She yelled as people started coming out onto the balconies above. I spotted Laura among those watching. She waved at us but Nikki didn't notice. So instead, I waved back for him.

The fight hasn't even started and I have stuff handled.

"More guts then you would think with the team I got," Nikki muttered to himself. He raised his head and met the Gym leader in the eye. "My name is Nicholas Maple of Petalburg City, and I'm here to challenge you for the Heat badge!"

Well, that was more intense than I expected. Hey if it helped him get over his nerves then I had no complaints.

"I've heard of you. You're Norman's Nephew,"

"Oh here it comes," Nikki said just loudly enough for me to hear.

"I look forward to our battle. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of battle the blood of my fellow gym leader can offer me."

"Okay good, I was a little worried," He said, again, too low for anyone else but me to hear. The gym leader laughed and started walking towards one end of the rectangular arena.

"I accept your challenge. Take your place at the end of the arena opposite mine so that we can get started,"

Nikki ran towards his end of the arena, me still riding on his shoulder. As he ran, another human wearing a red robe walked out and stood off to the side of the arena. The referee if I had to guess.

"The battle between the Gym Leader Flannery of the Lavaridge gym and Nicholas Maple of Petalburg city will now begin." The red robed man who I now knew was the ref said as he held two flags in his hands. "This battle will be on a three on three. The first trainer to have all three of their pokémon unable to battle will win. Once out, neither challenger nor gym leader nay switch pokémon mid-battle. If the challenger wins, then he will win his third gym badge,"

Nikki gulped as he reached for Milk's pokéball. She was probably the worst suited out of all of us for this fight. In a messed up kind of way, that meant she was also the best option for our first battler. Better for her to go down early when we had time to react to being down one then for her to go last and have it all ride on her.

It was a good plan, even if it did leave a sour taste in my mouth and left me feeling icky about it.

"The match begins, now!" The ref said as he brought both flags down.

* * *

"Let's get things started," Flannery said as she tossed out a pokéball. I clutched Vimilky's pokéball before tossing it into the air.

"Do your best Vimilky," I said as the pokéballs opened and both pokémon appeared on the field. "Even if it's not enough, do your best. It's all you have,"

Vimilky put up both of her hands in a fighting pose as her opponent stretched in front of her. I grimaced as I saw Flannery's first choice for the battle. A bright red slug that looked like they were made from magma. A slugma, a pokémon that Vimilky had almost no real way of hurting without hurting herself in the process.

Flannery just looked at the Vimilky for a while, not saying or doing anything. It looked like my choice in pokémon had taken the winds out of her sails a bit.

"You, you did know this was a fire type gym right?" She said much more calmly then she had been acting just a little while ago.

"Well between the fact that the town was called Lavaridge, the hot springs, and the fact that parts of the town including the gym are built into the side of an active volcano, I had a feeling that this was a fire gym yes,"

"And you do know that both of Mawile's types have issues with fire right?"

"Oh trust me, I am well aware of the mess that my team comp and travel plans have gotten me in. If I had a fourth pokémon, then Vimilky would be spending her time in her pokéball doing…" I glanced down at Vimilky who was looking at me with a slightly amused look on her face. "What do you even do in your pokéball anyway?"

She barked something that I figured that Brook would soon translate for me. As expected, I felt the connection between me and Brook go live shortly.

 _"Apparently she spends her time carving stuff out of the fake rocks in her pokéball. Have to say, did not see that coming,"_

"Okay so apparently she'd be spending it carving rock statues. So yeah, this is the best I can do with who I have,"

Did Flannery deserve this lip? No, not really, but she was getting it anyway.

"Did, did you just have a conversation with one of your pokémon?" She asked like I hadn't and was just crazy.

"Of course I did, my Ralt's pretty good at playing translator."

She rubbed her forehead like she had a headache for some reason.

"Let's just, let's just start the fight,"

"Agreed, Vimilky, get ready."

Vimilky lifted her arms up in the same fighting pose she had had before. Not sure why she was doing so, it wasn't like she had any moves that used her fist as far as I knew.

I was just going to chalk it up to Brook's influence and move on.

Vimilky had one non-contact move in her arsenal. So that was what I was going to have to count on to get me through this fight.

"Vimilky, start things off with fairy wind,"

"Slugma, show them your incinerate,"

Vimilky's upper jaw glowed pink as she swung it around, throwing a gust of sparkling wind at Slugma. At the same time, Slugma opened their move and unleashed a small torrent of flame. The two attacks collided in the air, canceling each other out.

Stay at bay, or try to get in close so that the attack didn't have to travel as far. I had to pick a way to do this. But which.

"Slugma, use incinerate,"

Brook chirped out some sort of warning to Vimilky. I waited too long and now there was another burst of flames fast approaching Vimilky. She had no time to launch a counterattack to negate it, but the flames were narrow. The best option here was…

"Vimilky, dodge out of the way of the flames," She turned sideways and jumped back, using her other jaw as a counterweight to throw herself. The flames sailed past here doing nothing.

Okay so now what?

"Vimilky, keep dodging the flames,"

Two more times Flannery had her Slugma attack with the narrow stream of fire. Each time she did so, I noticed something about Slugma.

Every time Slugma had used incinerate, they had picked a direction and attacked in it. Almost as though they couldn't move their necks while they were attacking. I had a potentially in, I had to use it carefully. Flannery didn't know that I knew, and I would only get the element of surprise once.

"Vimilky, get ready for Slum's next attack,"

 _"Sounds like you have a plan,"_ Brook commented from my shoulder. Vimilky just nodded and I wondered for a second if it would be cheating for me to tell the plan to Brook for her to tell Vimilky so that Flannery couldn't hear. The more I thought about it, the more against the rules it sounded. Better not risk it.

Slugma reared their head back and I saw our chance.

"Vimilky, run at Slugma at an angle," Vimilky barked as she took off running, getting out of the way of the narrow flame and closing in.

"Slugma, stop the fire,"

Flannery must have seen what my plan was. I just hoped that Vimilky had been fast enough.

"Vimilky, use fairy wind," I said as soon as Slugma stopped breathing fire. Vimilky was only a few steps away when she swung her other jaw forward. Another gale of sparkling pink wind came at Slugma, and this time there was no incinerate to counter it.

The gale got a direct hit… and did barely any damage. Slugma flinched back and looked a bit miffed, but looked fine otherwise.

"Oh right, forgot that fire types take reduced damage from fairy type attacks,"

 _"How do you forget something like that?"_ Brook demanded.

"Doesn't matter now. Vimilky back away and get ready to dodge the next attack,"

We could talk about this later, for now, I had a battle to focus on.

"Slugma, use ember,"

Well, that could prove to a problem. Slugma reared their head back and unleashed a swarm of small sparks. Overall, much weaker than the stream of fire Slugma had been using earlier.

However, it more than made up for that with how wide the attack was.

"Vimilky, ember hits wider than incinerate, dodge more heavily,"

But it was no use. Vimilky tried to get out of the way like before, but time got caught on the outer edges of the attack.

Vimilky shrieked in pain as the flames singed her arm.

"Vimilky, are you alright?"

She barked something long in response as she wiped the flames off her and got to her feet.

 _"She said 'does it look like I'm fine' and then 'I can still fight though,_ " Brook translated helpfully.

"That's good, let's keep at this Vimilky,"

Vimilky smiled before wincing and grabbing ahold of her singed arm with her other arm.

"Slugma, use ember again," Flannery commanded as Slugma shot at Vimilky with another wide burst of tiny flames.

"Vimilky, counter with fairy wind," There was no way that Vimilky would be fast enough to dodge out of the way of the embers so I had to try something else. Hopefully, a counterattack would do just the trick. The sparkling gale met the embers and were blown out completely even as the fairy wind kept going.

"I see," I heard Flannery mumble to herself even as the gale hit Slugma. While it didn't do any noticeable damage like last time, I did notice Slugma flinch back a little further.

"What do you mean by 'I see'?" I asked Flannery while carefully watching Slugma.

"People don't usually use fairy types here so this is the first time I've seen fairy wind go up against ember," She explained as she eyed Vimilky. "I learned something new today, thanks for that. But honestly, I think it's time to wrap this battle up. I hate using this move so early but I don't think I'm taking down your Mawile with Slugma any other way,"

My eyes widened, there was only one move I could think of that fit this situation that someone might want to save for later.

"Vimilky, brace yourself for a big one,"

"Slugma, use Overheat!"

Slugma glowed bright red for a moment, as bright as the magma they were named after. They opened their mouth, a wave of flame and heat exploded outwards in a cone shape, leaving no room to dodge.

Vimilky had crossed her arms in front of her and laid her upper jaw in front of those. It was nowhere near enough as the tide of flames washed over her. I could do nothing but watch as I saw Vimilky struggle through the flames.

By the time it was over, Vimilky was barely standing, and covered in scorch marks.

Brook yelled something at Vimilky as she unfolded herself. With her arms at her side and her jaw on her back, Vimilky tried to take a single step forward.

She never made it, she fell where she stood.

"Mawile is unable to battle, Slugma wins." The referee announced with a raised flag as I grit my teeth.

"You put up a bit more of a fight then I would have expected," Flannery's compliments felt hollow as I recalled Vimilky. "I normally avoid trying to use overheat on pokémon I have an advantage against but you forced me to break that rule,"

I looked at her coldly as I reattached Vimilky's pokéball to clip on my chest.

"Thanks," I said plainly as I reached for Khesen's pokéball. "Hopefully my next pokémon can do more than force you to break a rule. Go, Khesen,"

Khesen took the field in a flash of light. He stared down his opponent with an intense glare.

 _"He's mad about what he did to Vimilky,"_ Brook helpfully supplied. _"I kind of am too, to be honest,"_ Brook then brought her hands together around her mouth and yelled something at Khesen. Judging based on the smile that he gave us, I was going to assume it was encouragement of some sort.

Not that it looked like he needed it. Overheat was a powerful move but it was well known for being a costly one. Slugma looked a lot duller then he had beforehand. His flames would be much less intense, maybe even weak enough for a mach punch.

"Begin," The referee said as the flags came down.

"Slugma use…"

"Khesen, mach punch, now!" There was not a single moment of hesitation. Khesen dashed forward almost too quickly for my eye to see. He came to a sudden stop right in front of Slugma. He swung his fist forward, the momentum of the dash transferring into the attack.

Slugma didn't have a chance. The fire type went flying back, sailing past the arena boundary. He was still able to battle, but a ring out was a ring out.

"Slugma is unable to battle, Breloom wins," In a single move, I had even up the score. There was a bit of a cost though. Even if he was trying to hide it, it was clear that Khesen's fist had come out slightly charred.

"Slugma, return," Flannery recalled Slugma and put his pokéball on her belt. She grabbed the one next to it and brought it up. "Ring out, been a while since I've seen one of those,"

She tossed the pokéball towards the arena and a second later, a Torkoal appeared on the field. This… could be troublesome. Torkoal was pretty much Flannery's signature pokémon. For it not to be last, she had something up her sleeve for her last pokémon.

Khesen and Torkoal looked at each other, both of them narrowing their eyes.

"Begin,"

We waited no time, both Flannery and I gave out our first commands.

"Khesen, use mach punch!"

"Torkoal, use sunny day,"

Khesen dashed forward as Torkoal lifted their head up, pointing it upwards. The fire turtle opened their mouth and shot out a ball of light that lit up the room.

Torkoal brought their head back down just in time for Khesen to deliver a wicked punch to their face. Unlike Slugma however, Torkoal planted their feet and stayed standing in place.

Looks like this one would be a little tougher.

"Torkoal, use body slam,"

"Khesen, dodge and use bullet seed,"

Torkoal jumped into the air, attempting to land on top of Khesen. Khesen disagreed with this, jumping out of the way and letting loose a hail of bullet seeds out of his mouth.

The seeds did little damage, but a little damage for no damage was a trade I was willing to make in this fight.

"Khesen, use mach punch," I yelled just as Torkoal landed. With the way that Khesen had jumped, he was to the side of his opponent. I wasn't sure what the turn speed of a Torkoal was, but I doubted that it was fast enough to deal with an oncoming mach punch.

And I was mostly right. Torkoal didn't have a chance to react as Khesen closed in and delivered a swift punch to Torkoals shell.

What I hadn't counted on, was how far a Torkoal's neck could reach.

"Torkoal use overheat,"

The fire types took a step to angle themselves before their neck suddenly twisted. With their head almost facing backward, Torkoal opened their mouth and unleashed a massive torrent of flame twice the size as the one Slugma made.

Khesen took the full brunt of it. Not even having enough time to dodge out of the way. Finally, the flames stopped, revealing a barely standing Khesen. He let out a pant before yelling suddenly into the air. He steadied himself and brought his arms up, ready to fight again.

"Tougher then I would have expected," Flannery noted. "But that's not going to be enough in a gym like this,"

"Good thing Khesen's more than fast then," I said as I thought of a plan. "Khesen, use mach punch to get close, but be ready to avoid the flames,"

"Torkoal, use overheat,"

Khesen nodded and dashed off towards Torkoal who got ready for an attack of their own. They unleashed their flames again, a little smaller this time but still larger than the one that Slugma made.

But not so large that Khesen had no hope of avoiding the attack. He sidestepped at the last possible moment before dashing forward again. He landed his punch on Torkoals face and before he could do anything else, I gave him his next move.

"Khesen, mega drain,"

I knew the grass type draining move wouldn't do that much damage, but it didn't matter. As Khesen punched with his other fist and started to glow red, some of his worst burns lessened.

Before, any hit would have been enough to take Khesen down. No? Not so much.

He didn't have too much time to drain however, as Torkoal quickly recovered and boy did they look mad.

"Khesen, get some distance and get ready for the flames again,"

"Torkoal, use overheat,"

Khesen managed to get out of the way quickly enough. It helped that this overheat was slightly smaller than the one that Slugma had used in Vimilky.

Torkoal was open and it was time for another mach punch into mega drain.

"Khesen, use mach punch," This was it, even If I had a bit of a shaky start, I was making some headway. This was a winnable fight. This was how I got my third badge. This was…

"Torkoal, use body slam,"

The end.

Before I could do a single thing, Torkoal jumped out if the way of the attack. With the punch whiffed, Khesen went off balance, leaving him wide open for an attack from above. Khesen was slammed under Torkoal's weight and when Torkoal got off him, Khesen didn't get back up.

The referee's flag came down, ending it. "Breloom is unable to battle, Torkoal wins,"

"Khesen, return," I recalled Khesen and reclipped his pokéball onto my chest.

Now I was in a tricky situation. With two pokémon down, it was all up to…

"Brook, you're up," I said as I stretched out the arm that she had been standing on.

 _"Well, it's about time!"_ She said laughing as she ran down the length of my arm before jumping off and boosting to the arena.

She landed on the ground and smirked at the Torkoal. She chirped something at them before making a small ball of psychic energy in her hand.

As she tossed it into the air only to catch it, I realized what she was doing.

"Brook stop taunting and get your head in the game. It's all up to you now,"

 _"And don't I know it,"_ She said confidently as she caught the ball one more time only for it to dissolve.

I took a deep breath to calm myself as the referee rose both flags up.

"This battle between Ralts and Torkoal will now… begin,"

Both flags came down and I was the first to act.

"Brook, around and avoid the attacks,"

"Torkoal, use overheat,"

A strange thing happened as Brook boosted towards Torkoal. The cave suddenly got darker. I looked up and realized that that ball of light that Torkoal had made was now gone.

The sunny day was gone, and now the night was out for the taking.

* * *

I like to imagine myself as a calm individual.

"Your aim is bad and you should feel bad!"

Sure I had a few things that got under my skin really quickly, but all in all, pretty calm.

"What are you even trying to hit, me or the cave wall?"

Stuff like my Mother, not being able to help Nikki train his psychic powers, and Nikki's love for all things sweet.

"You know you can give up if you want? I won't hold it against you,"

But burning my friends? Now I wasn't just pissed, I was burning with enough fury to sing a fire type. Something this Torkoal was going to learn the hard way.

I had spent most of the early fight boosting around, baiting the overheats. At this point, they weren't even hot enough to melt butter, or big enough to fully burn a dinner plate.

With the Torkoal's flames pretty much neutralized, I wondered what idea Nikki had in store for her.

"Brook now, boost towards Torkoal head on!"

I would have shrugged my shoulders if doing so didn't run the risk of sending me straight into a wall. It was a risky-sounding plan, but I was willing to try whatever Nikki had going in his head.

I readjusted my aim and came straight at the Torkoal.

"Torkoal, use Overheat!" Flannery said as the Torkoal opened her mouth again. A narrow stream of fire came straight at me. I slightly nudged myself to the side and avoided it without breaking a sweat.

Literally at this point, the flames were cool enough that I didn't even feel them as I sailed past them.

Then, as I got close, I heard the next step of Nikki's plan.

"Okay Brook, now boost under Torkoal,"

And just like that, I had a good guess as to what he had planned.

I readjusted my aim again and aimed straight at the floor under my opponent. I cut off the boost soon after. I hit the ground with a sliding dash and came to a stop right underneath Torkoal.

"Use confusion with everything you have!"

I poured as much as I could into the sphere of psychic energy between my hands. With a single yell, I unleashed it all at once, pushing it into Torkoal's underside.

While I would like to say she went flying like the way Khesen had done to Slugma, that didn't happen. Instead what happened was that she got lifted up into the air.

Seeing the chance to capitalize on this, I took aim at the side of the shells underside.

Still, I felt a little mean doing this.

"Brook, use confusion on the side of the shell.

Looked like Nikki had the same idea I did. Well if both of us thought of it then it couldn't have been that evil.

I opened fire on the edge of the shell, sending the still airborne Torkoal spinning. I fired a few more times just to make sure. I smirked as Torkoal fell to the ground, landing on her back.

"Such a rude child," Torkoal grumbled as she looked at me upside down. "What would your mother say if she learned you flipped someone over like this? She'd be so ashamed,"

And there it was, the last straw broken, the final line crossed.

 _"Nikki, I'm kicking this thing out of bounds."_

"Kick? How are you going to… oh no."

It was a bit of a trick that I had come up with a while ago that I hadn't had a chance to try out in a real fight then. I gathered the psychic energy inside of me and instead of pooling it into my arms, I pooled it into my leg.

"She'd probably be more surprised and disappointed that I'm still alive," I informed her as I took a running start. I made sure that I had my left leg back as I reached Torkoal. I swung my right leg back and kicked as hard as I could, making sure to release the pooled psychic energy at the same time.

I was split on either calling it a confusion kick or a boosted kick.

Not that it really mattered. What mattered was that the kick was strong enough to send Torkoal spinning in the air. I took aim and waited until just the right moment. I fired off a confusion right into Torkoal. She went flying, and while it wasn't far enough to send her out of bounds, it was far enough for her to hit the ground with a loud smack. She landed right-side up, but it didn't really matter too much. Not with how her limbs and neck were all splayed over the ground.

I looked over to the referee, waiting for that raised flag.

"Torkoal is unable to battle, Ralts wins,"

I pumped my fist in victory. Only one left and we walked out of here with another gym badge. Sure I was a little tired from all that boosting, but I had managed to win without taking a hit.

I was close to victory, I could taste it.

"That's a strong Ralts you have there. Fast too, never seen one move around like that before,"

 _"Nikki, tell her that no amount of compliments are going to stop me from taking her down!"_

Nikki just sighed and rolled his eyes. Oh well, I guess I would have to show her through action instead of words.

Flannery reached for her last pokémon. This was it, it all came down to this.

"Go ponyta,"

In front of me was an off-white horse that had its back on fire. She was tall, very tall. She was also walking over to talk to me.

"Have to admit, the way you threw Torkoal like that? Best thing I've seen all day,"

"Well, that was a reaction I wasn't expecting. You two don't get along well?"

Ponyta snickered.

"That old bag? She's a nag who never gets off my case. Proper manners this, and be polite that. I am so sick of it at this point,"

"Well as fun as this little pre-battle banter has been, I have placed to be and losers to own, namely you,"

Her eyes narrowed.

"Bring it on short stuff, I'll crush you like a rotten wooden board under my hooves,"

I moved back to put a little distance between us. Meanwhile, the referee lifted their flags again.

"May the battle, begin!"

"Brook, use boost to get some distance,"

"Ponyta use flame charge,"

I aimed both of my arms downwards as the flames started covering ponyta. By the time she charged past the point where I had been standing, I was already safe and out of her reach.

"Now fire a confusion downwards," I flipped in the air, aiming a confusion at the Ponyta below. I fired off a bolt, but she managed to dodge out of the way before it could hit.

I landed on the ground with a three-point landing and watched Ponyta carefully. She was coming back around, looking to get ready for another flame charge.

Was this one faster than the last one? Nah, probably just my imagination.

"Brook, wait for it," I nodded, guessing what exactly Nikki had in mind. Ponyta got closer, and closer, until finally, she was almost right on top of me to the point that I could feel the heat. "Now teleport,"

I blinked out of sight just as she ran past where I had been standing. Ponyta came to a skidding stop once she noticed that I was missing.

"But where is…"

"Right behind you!" I yelled as I let out a quick one-two of confusions. This time she had no time to get out of the way, taking both attacks to the back.

"Ponyta, overheat!"

She twisted her head back, guessing that I was floating in the air at too close a range to avoid the attack. Well, she was wrong. I teleported again, this time to right in front of her. I waited for a second to keep the flames lit. The more she used that overheat of hers, the weaker her flames would get.

"Ponyta, she's in front of you again,"

Oh right, enemy trainer. There were two sets of eyes that I had to deal with, not just one.

"Brook, use confusion," I let out another bolt before she could cut the flames. She took the attack right to her chest but didn't look too worse for wear.

It kind of annoyed me, to be honest.

"Ponyta, use stomp"

Ponyta reared back with her legs in the air before bringing them back down. A non-issue for me considering my ability to teleport. All I had to was gather my energy and transfer myself to…

Oh no.

Ponyta's stomp came crashing down on me. I took two hooves to the chest and feel under Ponyta's weight.

"Heaver then you look," I said through gritted teeth before coughing out the rest of the air in my lungs.

"Really? Wasting your air on a taunt? You must be crazier than I thought, either that or your actually enjoying this,"

"Brook, what happened?"

 _"Three_ _teleports after so many confusions turned out to be one teleport too many,"_ I explained as I gathered up my strength to burst out of this.

"Are you serious? Well if you're dry with that power… Brook, use burst!"

I had just about finished coaxing that other power from within me when Nikki said to use it. The other power gathered and exploded outwards.

"Woah," Ponyta yelled as she was thrown back. It wasn't enough to blast her onto her back, but it was more than enough for her to get her hooves off of me. I scrambled up onto my feet as soon as I was able to.

I wasn't getting stepped on twice.

"What was that?" I heard the gym leader ask herself I breathed heavily. "Not important, Ponyta, use flame charge again," Ponyta jumped back and started charging straight at me.

"Brook, get out of the way, no teleports!"

Well, he didn't have to tell me twice. I had gotten too reckless with powers. Instead, I turned so that I was at an angle and jumped back. Two quick confusions later and I had boosted out of the way of the charge. It wasn't like my usual boosts either, being more like a short hop then a long jump.

But it cost almost nothing to use and I was going to abuse the heck out of it.

Ponyta ran to the edge of the arena and made a U-turn towards me.

Okay, now I was sure that she was getting faster with each pass. I boosted out of the way of that as well.

"Brook," Nikki yelled. I opened my ears, ready to hear whatever plan Nikki had to pull a win. "Look out, she's getting faster each time she uses flame charge,"

 _"Oh really Nikki, I hadn't noticed!"_ I snarked at him as I got out of the way of another charge. She got a little closer to hitting me this time, I even felt some of the heat. She ran around and made another run at me.

I got ready to make another short hop boost and she was getting really close really fast wasn't she?

"Brook!" I heard Nikki yell as Ponyta smacked into me. I got sent flying back. I landed on the ground hard and let out pained wince as I felt the heat all over my body. It hurt, and for a terrifying moment, I didn't think I could get up.

"Ralts is…" I threw my eyes open. This was not this was going to end. I lifted my arm up and smacked it down on the ground. I used the impact from my fist to leverage myself.

My skin burned with every slight movement.

I ignored the pain.

Every time I took a breath, I could feel my ribs hurt.

I ignored the pain.

I flexed the hand I had punched into the dirt, my bloody knuckles still aching.

I ignored the pain.

I stood, panting and with everything feeling like it was on fire, but standing. Ponyta was staring me down. At least she had stopped charging.

"Brook, are you okay?" I looked back at Nikki and opened the connection.

 _"Fine, I'm fine,"_

"Okay then," He sounded unconvinced. It didn't matter, I could keep going. "Brook use confusion,"

I brought both of my arms down and shoot out a pair of confusions at Ponyta's feet. She jumped a bit, completely avoiding the attack.

"Ponyta, use flame charge," Flannery said, but I could hear that she wasn't really putting her heart into it. Did they really think that the battle was already over?

"Give it up kid," She told me as she started running at me. She was a lot slower than she had been when she had smacked into me. I fired off another confusion at Ponyta's feet. She jumped over it, clearing it easily. She landed on the ground and came right at me.

I knew that I wouldn't be quick enough to boost out of the way. I crossed my arms together and got ready to take the blow.

The burns worsened, and I couldn't help but let out a shriek.

"Brook!" Nikki said as I fell again. "That's enough, we've lost,"

No, no we hadn't.

I refuse.

I dragged myself to my feet. I could feel the blood flowing from a cut on my cheek, plus some more in other places all over my body.

"Brook, return," I looked back and glared at Nikki. He had my pokéball in his hand.

 _"Don't you dare!"_ I screamed at him. I was not going to lose, I couldn't lose.

"Brook, you can't keep going,"

 _"I can, I can still win this! I am not losing here!"_

Nikki growled.

"Okay then, let's keep going." Nikki let out a held breath. "We'll keep going," He told Flannery.

She looked concerned like she wasn't the one who had been throwing the fire around in the first place.

"Ponyta, use ember," Flannery said. A clever plan I had to admit. A widespread move that would be hard to dodge out of the way of. I took a different route.

I held my arm out and shoot a confusion in front of me. The bolt of psychic energy took out most of the small flams, but a few made it through anyway. I winced as the fires licked my skin.

I had to shrug off the pain, I had to. I wouldn't let her win. She couldn't win. Moth… I mean Flannery couldn't win.

"Kid, just stop," Ponyta said

Ponyta charged at me again, going at that slow pace that drove me crazy. I decided I needed a change of pace. This move had already won me one match, so it had to win me a second one. I pooled the power into one of my arms and pulled it back.

I waited until ponyta was right in my face. I threw the punch, the power of the confusion getting channeled into explosive force.

My fist hit nothing, the blast hitting nothing but air. The flames parted to reveal that I had apparently attacked a heat mirage. I was too slow, and the flames came back before I could pull my arm back.

I couldn't bring myself to look Ponyta in the eye as the flames consumed my arm. I didn't want to know what kind of face she'd be wearing.

Someone screamed, I think it was me.

I fell to my knees, the pain almost leaving me blind.

"Brook that's it. You can't keep going,"

 _"Yes I can,"_ I told him even as I kept screaming. _"I won't fall here,"_

"Brook, return,"

Oh no he didn't. I felt the little red beam touch my back, and I rejected it.

"Brook!" Nikki snapped. I ignored him as I shambled towards Ponyta. I felt the red beam hit me a few more times. I didn't care. I would win with our without him.

"What are you doing?" Ponyta asked as I reached her leg. I pulled my arm back and started punching her leg. I tried to channel the power into my arm, but all I managed was to make small lights. "Just stop, you're going to hurt yourself permanently if you keep this up,"

"It'll be worth it if I win. I can't stop, can't lose," I explained as I kept trying to punch her leg. She just sighed and her leg suddenly moved. I closed my eyes as I kick got me right in the face. I fell backward.

I couldn't move, I couldn't even twitch. I felt another red beam hit me in the shoulder. This time, I didn't fight it. I just let myself get recalled as I tried to stop the tears from falling from my eyes.

* * *

I stumbled onto the chair of the pokécenter with my head hung low.

This was the first time that brook lost. It was something that I had known was coming for some time now. I knew that she couldn't keep up this unbeaten win streak going forever. But it still hurt to see anyway. The way she lost made it even worse.

I had felt so helpless as I watched that Ponyta just toss Brook around. That I tried so many times to recall Brook, only for her to at first tell me not to and then actively resist being recalled made it even worse.

Looking back, I could have handled that better. Not just the battle, but Brook's arrogance. While she hadn't lost because she'd been cocky, she had kept fighting even after victory was impossible. It wasn't a healthy way to fight. If that was how she reacted to fighting a losing battle, then I wasn't really comfortable sending her out to fight anymore.

She'll hate me for it, but it was what was safest for her.

Plus, I was pretty sure that Flannery would rip my head off if I just put Brook into a battle right away. She had been ready to do so right after our fight. Fortunately, I had managed to explain enough to her enough for to not kill me. She had chewed me out anyway though.

A few hours later night and night had fallen. Vimilky and Khesen had already been given a clean bill of health and the three of us were all waiting on Brook.

As I looked at the door of the medical center, I made up my mind.

"After this, I don't think Brook's going to battle for a while," I said aloud for both of my other pokémon to hear. "Not if she's willing to put herself through that kind of beating,"

I glanced over.

Khesen was standing with his back leaning against the wall. He looked like he wanted to say something, but held it back. I suspected that it wasn't just because he knew I couldn't understand him.

Vimilky, on the other hand, was wearing a bitter smile. She nodded in agreement as I thought of our conversation on the sloped path after my argument with Brook. She had been the one to say that I hadn't been harsh enough.

About an hour later, we got the word. Brook was okay, but they wanted to let her rest for the night. Upon explaining to the nurse what happened, she agreed with me that Brook shouldn't battle until she got her issues worked out.

I went to my room and got ready to sleep. However, as I was about to go to sleep, someone knocked on my door.

"Hello?" There was a nurse on the other side of the door. The same one I had talked to about Brook earlier.

"Hello, Nicholas Maple? It's about your Ralts,"

"Is she okay?" I said. She got hurt pretty bad in that fight. If there had been some sort of issue that they hadn't caught the first time around…

"She's… gone,"

* * *

I wasn't sure where I was exactly going until I made it there. There being a rocky outcropping growing out of the face of the cliff. I dangled my legs over the edge and looked downwards.

Lavaridge was pretty small compared to some other human cities I had seen. I wasn't even that high up and I could still see the whole town from up here.

I started watching the humans and pokémon below me. All of them just walking around, moving about and living their lives. I bet none of them had to worry about finding out that they were pathetic weaklings. None of them had to worry about failing everyone and having them all hate you.

None of them had to worry that Mother had been right about them.

I sighed as my eyes passed over the Gym. I had gone in so confidently. So sure that all I had to do was try my best and that victory would just come to me. Otherwise, what was all my training for, what was all my victories for?

Nothing, in the end, it was all nothing. My training was nothing, my victories were nothing, and I was nothing.

I sat there in silence for a while until I heard someone climbing up the rocky cliff face to get up to where I was.

I glanced straight down and saw Milk climbing up the cliff.

"Hey Brook," Milk said as she climbed up. I watched carefully as she climbed and got ready to boost down to catch her if she fell. Fortunately, she didn't fall and she made it up to where I was with no issue.

"I'm surprised I found you so quick. Still, did you have to pick some place like this? I felt like I was going to fall so many times," She laughed before motioned for me to move over a bit.

"Kind of picked it because I wanted to not be found, not for right now at least. I was going to go back eventually," I admitted as I scooted over to give Milk space to sit. We both sat down looking over the town with our legs dangling over the air. Not saying anything, not doing anything, just sitting there and taking in the night.

"You terrified us," Milk said, breaking the silence. "The way you kept going like that, part of me wondered if you were just going to keep going until you died,"

"I think I would have," I admitted as I looked over at Milk. She was glaring at me with an ugly look. "What? What else do you want me to say?" At some point, my voice had crossed from 'saying' to 'yelling'. "Sorry for not fighting hard enough? I did the best I could okay,"

Milk looked confused for a moment. Then her face suddenly morphed into an emotion that I could only guess was furious anger.

"Do, do you think we're angry because you lost the fight?"

"Well, why else would you be mad at me?" I told her as I brought my knees up and wrapped my arms around them. "I lost, I turned out to be the same weak pathetic little girl that mother always said I was. Even after all of this, I can't run from what I am," I explained like it wasn't plainly obvious to anyone with eyes and a working brain.

"Oh Brook," Milk said as she rubbed her temples.

"You know this town is pretty small, but I think I can learn to love it,"

"What are you talking about?"

"I lost us the battle. Nikki, Khesen, you, all three of you put your faith in me and I let you all down. You're here because I guess you feel sorry for me but I know Khesen and Nikki must hate my guts. It'd be better if I just stayed and lived here,"

I clenched my knee as I felt the tears coming again.

"At this point, I wouldn't blame Nikki for ditching me for someone stronger. What use does he have for a weakling on his team?"

"Brook," Milk said softly. "On the extremely unlikely chance that Nikki was to leave you behind, which he won, what would you do then?"

"I guess I'd just stay and live here, passing the days until I died,"

"So basically give up on your whole 'strongest pokémon in the world' thing?"

"Pretty much, I mean if I can't beat some dumb fire horse, what chance do I have to become the world's strongest."

"Hey Brook, can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, what do you need?" I answered as I got ready for her to ask me to go die or something.

"Not much, just need you to stand up," Milk said nicely. She was even kind enough to offer me a helping hand to get up. Seeing no reason not to, I grabbed her hand and let her help me up.

"Okay, now I need you to move a little and stand over here…" She said as she picked me up and repositioned me on the outcrop so that her back was to the cliff.

"Why did you move me?"

"Because I wanted to make sure you hit the dirt and not the rocks when I did this,"

I glanced downwards at the dirt before glancing back and what was Milk doing with that fist?

"Wait Milk no!" I tried to stop her, but I was in no condition to stop a punch to the face.

So I took it, a punch to the face that is. I would like to say that I took it like a champ. That Milk threw her punch only for it to stop stone cold once it hit me. That I then responded by grabbing Milk's arm and twisting it around me until I had my treasonous teammate pinned under me.

But that would be lying. What instead happened was that I got a face full of fist that knocked me out.

"Brook you, absolute idiot!" Milk yelled as I went down. Fortunately for my head, I landed on the soft dirt at the center of the outcropping instead of the rocks. I guess I had Milk to thank for that.

"You absolute moron. Are you really going to just give up? One loss and you completely fall apart? Don't give me that garbage. You are one of the strongest pokémon that I've ever met and you're sitting here moping that someone finally beat you for once?" Milk ranted as I laid there on the floor.

"And do you really think that we hate you for losing? That Nicholas is about to ditch you just because you lost? News flash Brook, we all lost. And this isn't even the first time that Khesen or I have lost. Did he get rid of us then? No, no he didn't. You need to get this through your thick head, we like you Brook. We like you not because you're some unstoppable battler, but because you're our friend. Now get up, dust yourself off, because you are going to do what every single mortal being to walk this planet has done since the dawn of time,"

She leaned over me and lowered her hand for me to grab.

"You're about to try again after failing the first time."

I got to my knees and put my head down, not wanting to look Milk in the eye.

"I'm scared," I admitted without the slightest hint of pride. "I'm scared that I'm still the same weakling I was before I started all of this. Scared that I'll never change into someone stronger,"

"You have changed," Milk reassured me. "And you're going to keep changing until one day, you won't be able to see the pokémon that you used to be in your reflection anymore,"

She trailed off, as though she herself wasn't sure whether or not that was a bad thing. But even so, that point had weight, more than I would like. Maybe it was time to change, maybe it was time for me to try again for the first time.

I looked up and saw that Milk still had her hand out for me to grab. I took it and started pulling myself up when my hand started to glow.

* * *

"They've been gone a while now. Do you think Vimilky found her? Do you think both are all right?" I stopped pacing from one end of the room to the other right in front of the grass type who was still leaning with their back to the wall.

"Well, what do you think Khesen?"

Khesen just shrugged at me and made some sort of growling sound.

"Let me guess you're either trying to tell me that I can't understand what you're saying or telling me to be patient and not freak out?" Khesen nodded. "Are you saying yes to both?"

Khesen nodded again and, for a moment, I felt pretty awesome for being able to understand what he meant.

And then I thought about what he said and I found myself even more worried than before. I knew that freaking out wouldn't help. In fact, it would probably freak Brook out even more if she did come back.

"You have a point," I admitted as I sat down and tried to calm myself down. I had to be calm for when Brook came back so that we could have a meaningful conversation as to why she ran. I mean, I could make a good guess, but I figured that it was best to not assume.

Maybe I would have been a bit calmer if I hadn't been convinced to let Vimilky look for Brook on her own.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the window and I immediately got off the bed and ran over to it. I grabbed the end of the sliding window and threw it open as hard as I could. The window hit the other end with a loud smack as I poked my head out the window.

"Brook, are you…"

Brook was indeed outside, but different. Standing next to Vimilky, was a slightly larger pokémon with long legs, white skirt and longer green hair in pigtails. In fact, if it wasn't for the green bandana around her neck, I would never have guessed that the Kirlia in front of me was Brook.

 _"Hi. It's me,"_ Brook said as she rubbed her knees together and fiddled with her hands. _"Nikki, I think there are some things that we need to talk about,"_

I let out a sigh as I stood aside to let her enter through the window.

"Yeah, there is,"


	13. Episode 13

**Episode 13: Onwards and Upwards**

* * *

"So," Nikki said as I climbed my way through the window with his help.

 _"So,"_ I responded as I made it across and started helping Milk do the same.

"Why'd you leave?" He asked as I shut my eyes. I didn't want to say it, but he deserved to know.

 _"I thought you were going to get rid of me,"_ I forced out as I looked away from him. _"I was so sure that all it would take was one loss, one failure, and you'd realize that I was the useless little Ralts that I was and get rid of me,"_

"Brook," Nikki said with a sigh as he cupped his face into his hands. "Why would I get rid of you? Khesen and Vimilky lost too, and I'm not getting rid of them," Nikki explained.

 _"So you're not getting rid of me for not being strong enough?"_ I asked, a strange feeling starting to fill my heart.

"Brook, I would never kick anyone off the team for losing a battle. Do you know how many pokémon in the Hoenn League have a one-hundred percent victory rate? None, not a single one," He explained. "Just because your record has one L on it doesn't mean you're not the same amazing battler that won the team two badges,"

" _Oh,"_ I said as I clenched my fist around my chest, a smile working its way onto my face. _"So I really was worried for nothing then?"_

"As far as getting kicked off the team, no," Nikki chuckled a bit. "Plus, I'm pretty sure that a trainer abandoning a pokémon for being too weak is something that happens in daytime TV dramas anyway. And there's something else you forgot about too,"

 _"What did I forget?"_

"Brook, do you remember that time after I found you but before we set off for our journey? How you met my family and spent time with them?"

 _"Yeah, I remember them,"_ I didn't even bother fighting the smile that came to me as I thought back to them. _"Your family was nice, really nice,"_

"How do you think they would react if they learned that I ditched you somewhere?"

 _"I'm not really sure,"_ I admitted.

"I'm pretty sure that they'd track me down and murder me," I was taken aback.

 _"Really, they would do that for me? But why?"_

"Because my family likes you Brook," He explained as he put his hand on the top of my head and rubbed my hair. "They adore you. They ask about you when I contact them all the time,"

 _"They do that?"_ I had to admit, I didn't pay too much attention to Brook's calls. They always felt weirdly personal to listen in on.

"Yeah they do," Nikki suddenly started looking a bit tired. "But changing the subject, Brook…"

 _"Yeah?"_

"You're not going to be battling anytime soon,"

 _"Wait but why?"_

"Because the last fight you fought, you let yourself get beat up to the point of risking permeant injury," Milk choose this moment to remind both of us that she was still in the room. "I agree with him, you need to cool your head a bit before you go back out there,"

"I'm just going to assume that Vimilky just gave you the spiel that I was planning to give you?" Nikki said as he looked to brook who nodded back at him. "Plus, not only do you have to calm down a bit, but there is another reason for you to take a break from battling,"

"Brook, you just evolved," Milk started. "The break is from battling, not from training. Think of it as a chance to learn how to properly use your new body and power before battling again,"

I looked at Milk, then at Nikki, and then back. I wasn't about to win this conversation, not with both of them teaming up here. I let out a sigh and hanged my head in defeat.

* * *

We found ourselves on one of the training fields of the Lavaridge pokécenter the next morning.

 _"Okay, let's get this done quick so I can go back to owning the battlefield,"_ Everyone present rolled their eyes as Brook both spoke aloud and said telepathically. She knew very well that the 'no battles' thing was not going away just because she evolved, so I think she was trying to get a rise out of us.

Fortunately for me, I had Vimilky on hand for 'Brook head deflating' duty. It was a job that we had both agreed was difficult but of vital importance. She wasn't there to do any real training though, not really wanting to go through those flames again.

Khesen was there too, ready to train himself and make up for that lost he had suffered. From what we could get out of the silent and broody grass type, he felt like he could have recovered from that whiffed punch. Seeing as how that whiff was what led to him losing, it was ample motivation to work on his balance.

While I worked on Brook's moves, Khesen would be doing some footwork and shadowboxing. How he suddenly knew how to do either of those things, I had no clue.

Pokémon, such mysterious creatures.

"Okay so let's start with the basics. Brook, use confusion," I said as I pointed at a paper target at the far end of the training field.

Brook spun in place, taking advantage of her longer legs, and lit her horns.

 _"Oh wow,"_ She said sounding surprised. " _The psychic power, it's coming to me so much quicker, and I feel like I can store so much more of it at once."_

"Yeah, that's how evolutions kind of work Brook," I pointed out to her. "That's why we're testing stuff out like this,"

Brook nodded and fired off a confusion at the target. The power that came out wasn't anything special for Brook, but there was a caveat. That kind of power was what came out when Brook went all out and did that volleyball sphere attack with both hands.

"Wow," I said and then let out a whistle. "Now what can you do going all out?"

Brook smiled as she closed her eyes and held her arms out so that she was standing in a t-pose. She glowed, the power visibly flowing into her arms until they formed into spheres in equal size.

Her eyes opened, filled to the brim with the green flames of psychic power. She smacked her arms together in a clap, releasing a wave of psychic energy.

There had been a target when we had started this, one with a small tree behind it. Neither of them were there anymore. The blast kept going even past that, making a dent into the mountain face behind it.

"Wow, does that even count as a confusion at this point?"

 _"I think it does, not like I feel like calling it anything else,"_ Brook shrugged, leaving me amazed by how little she seemed to care about her own attacks.

We tried out her other two attacks after that. Disarming voice was still about the same, something Brook blamed on not really having the chance really flex her abilities as a fairy. Magical leaf, on the other hand, got one heck of a power boost.

What had once been a torrent of small explosion had become a torrent of somewhat larger explosion. While that might not sound impressive, it was when you take into account that the number of leaves had doubled.

"Well, looks like your standard moves are working just fine. Let's try out some of the stuff we came up with ourselves," I said as we walked towards a training dummy.

 _"Let's try out the new trick first,"_ Brook said as she punched her fist into her open palm. Her arms slaked as she suddenly got a pensive sort of look. _"Still have to come up with a name for it first though,"_

"Confusion punch?"

 _"Psychic strike?"_

"Mind smack?"

 _"Mental blow?"_

"Oh that's a good one," I admitted. "Let's go with that one for now,"

 _"Alright then, mental blow it is,"_ She said as she pooled her psychic power into her arm. She jumped forward and threw the punch. There was a small explosion of green energy as the dummy flew backward.

"Nice," I complimented as I walked over and picked the dummy up.

Brook focused herself as I reset the training dummy. She ran up, the power pooled in her leg this time. She jumped at the last second, throwing her legs out into a dropkick.

She hit the dirt and the dummy hit the mountainside.

"Looks like you have a good handle on both of those. Let's try boosts next,"

 _"Like we have to practice those. They're my staple move, I'd be in pretty deep waters if I couldn't use boost,"_

"And that's why we should make sure it still works just right,"

Brook must have seen the point I was trying to make because she looked over and pointed at the spot next to the training dummy.

 _"There. I'll land there,"_ With her intent and target clear, she leaned forward with her arms aimed behind her. She shot out a pair of confusions behind her and went flying.

Right into the mountainside.

"Brook!" I screamed in alarm as I raced towards the crash site. Vimilky ran right behind me, and Khesen took advantage of his speed to rush there in front of me.

By the time I got there, Khesen was already helping her to her feet. She actually didn't look as bad as I would have expected. Sure she had a few cuts and bruises, but for the most part, she looked okay. How she did it, I had no clue. Maybe she was just getting tougher.

"What happened?"

 _"I think I put a little too much power into that jump,"_ She explained in dual audio for the sake of everyone else there. " _I went way further than I thought I would go,"_

"Guess that makes sense. Your powers went up so what used to throw you a short distance turns you into a living missile now,"

 _"How does something that sounds that cool, hurt this much,"_ Brook said as she winced in pain. _"I'll be okay,"_

"Maybe you should try that out later when you're in your pokéball," I suggested. "Want to try to burst or do you want to stop now?"

Brook hummed, sounding like she was mulling it over in her head.

* * *

Did I want to try to use burst? I honestly had no clue. With how much my psychic power grew with my evolution, who knew how much of that other power I could access.

The mountain to the side of the pokécenter had three dents in it now, I would rather not make a fourth.

 _"Maybe we should try it out outside of the town,"_ I finally decided. Last thing I wanted was to damage the town even more.

"You want to make the trip in the pokéball?"

 _"Please,"_

Nikki smiled as he took out my pokéball. He recalled me into it and I immediately felt a warm soothing sensation that I had already grown to love.

That weirdo who upgraded Nikki's pokédex may have creeped me out, but this healing ball was the best thing ever. I could already feel the worst of my cuts and bruises clearing up.

I probably would have had more if it hadn't been for my quick thinking. At the last moment before I had hit the rocks, I used a weaker confusion to cushion the blow. At the moment, it felt like the best idea of my life.

By the time Nikki reached a small clearing outside of town, the worst of the damage had already cleared up.

"Brook," He said, probably in case I was asleep or something. "We're here," He casually tossed the pokéball into the air and I came out.

I stretched my limbs out, trying to get the tired out of them. As I did, Nikki also tossed out two other pokéballs. Khesen and Milk appeared next to me. Khesen nodded at me before walking away to do some of his own training. Milk, on the other hand, stayed next to me.

"Alright," I muttered to myself to try and psych myself up. "Let's do this,"

"You ready to do this Brook?"

 _"Oh you have no idea how ready I am,"_ I said while giving him a grin. _"Especially now that I don't think I'm about to wreck part of Lavaridge,"_ I thought back to the sight of the town from the cliff from yesterday. _"Kind of starting to like this town,"_

"Okay, enough showboating," Milk rolled her eyes, "Show us what you got,"

I closed my eyes and dug deep into myself like I usually did when I used Burst. I found the power in me without too much trouble. Probably because the amount available to me seemed much higher.

The spring had gotten bigger, time to find out if I had grown in my ability to wield it too.

I coaxed the power out tried to hold it. I reached the amount I needed to unleash the kind of burst I used as a Ralts. Not only did it stay stable, but I felt like I could keep pouring more in with no trouble. Not only that, but I felt like I could, for lack of a better word, detonate the amount I already had and use it as a Burst if need be.

Good to know that I hadn't lost that trick in the process of mastering the use of this power.

I kept pouring more power, carefully keeping an eye on how much I already had and how stable it looked. I would have also kept an eye on how much of the well I still had to use, but after a while, it became clear that I wasn't about to run out any time soon.

I told everyone as much and then asked them to stay silent while I focused. I was grateful for the lack of a response.

I poured a bit more in and I felt the first hints of destabilization from the power I had poured already. While I could have ended it right there and there, I felt like I was close. Close to that magic amount I needed to use it properly, the way it was meant to be used.

I poured the power, slower more carefully, slowing even more at even the slightest hints of destabilization. I was at the borderline. I steadied my breath and poured the final bit in.

The power exploded outwards, and for a moment I was afraid that I had messed up. But once the power reached the border between the outside and inside of my body, it stopped expanding. Instead, it poured outwards covering me in a green glowing aura.

"Woah," I thought I had gained some sort echo voice for a moment, when I realized that it was just that Nikki, Milk and I all just decided to say the same thing at once. Both Milk and I laughed, as did Nikki once we explained what happened.

"So what does it… you know, do?" Nikki asked as he walked in a circle around me, inspecting the green aura.

 _"I have no idea,"_ I admitted with a shrug off my shoulders. Milk, who was also walking around me, let out an amused chuckle.

"Well at the very least, we can use her as a flashlight now,"

"Hush you," I said as I gave her a flat look.

"Just imagine it, the amazing glowing Kirlia. Oh, people would come from miles around," She continued, not letting the joke drop.

"Seriously Milk, hush," I said as I jokingly swatted the air in her general direction. I had meant it as a joke.

The blast of psychic power that slammed into Milk and sent her flying was no joke.

"Milk!" I ran after her, wincing as she flew through a tree. "Are you okay?" I said as I reached my arm out to help her out.

"Why did you do this?" She grunted as she picked herself up from the floor. She looked pretty good like the attack had mostly just taken the wind out of her.

"Maybe I should practice at a bit of a distance," I suggested.

"Maybe you should," Milk agreed as she walked and stood behind Nikki. "Or at least, do it in a place that puts Nikki between us,"

"Brook, is Vimilky using me as a human shield so that she doesn't accidentally get blasted again?" Nikki asked, looking a little annoyed. Instead of waiting for me to respond to Nikki, Milk just smiled and nodded.

I let it go, I needed to work on how this power worked.

I couldn't mold it as a blast, like a confusion. It refused to be fired, so it had to be something else. I tired detonating it like a burst, but annoyingly enough, it had somehow become too stable to be used that way.

Well if I couldn't fire it, or explode myself with it, there was always my newest trick. I looked over the small forest we were in and picked a medium sized tree that would work well for what I had in mind.

 _"Nikki, Milk, stand back, I'm going to try something on that tree,"_

They both walked backward, Nikki even getting Khesen's attention so that he wouldn't accidentally get caught up in my attack.

The trigger for the attack I used on Milk had been me attacking with my body. Maybe this power was meant to be channeled directly by my body.

I ran at the tree and jumped into the air, my new long legs giving me way more height then I would have ever dreamed of before. I angled myself and pulled one of my legs back so that I would hit the tree with the heel of my other leg.

As I flew towards the tree, I smiled. I could feel the power beginning to redirect itself from an even coating across my body to a concentrated bulge at the bottom of my heel. I smashed into the tree at full force, and then there was no tree.

Okay so that's a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. Instead of hitting the tree and bouncing off, I hit the tree and smashed through it instead.

"Oh wow," I breathed out as the tree fell. I broke out into a wild grin and ran up to the falling tree. I focused the power into my arm and punched it full force. It flew off, smashing into another tree.

"Looks like you figured out how it works," Nikki as both he and Milk walked up to me. Nikki narrowed his eyes as he got closer. "Hey is it just me, or is that aura fading?"

I glanced down at my arm. The green aura surrounding my body was indeed fading. When I checked it, it looked like the power that I had poured was near empty. Those blows must have been really expensive in terms of this power. I pouted as the rest of the power faded, the aura vanishing altogether.

 _"Yeah, I'm almost empty. Looks like I only get two hits in before the power runs out,"_ I said both aloud and telepathically.

"Yeah but look at those two hits," Milk said as she pointed at the shattered tree. "With hits like that, are you really going to need a third hit?"

"I have to agree with her," Nikki said after I translated what Milk said. "Plus this uses that other power and not your normal psychic power right? That means that you have a lot of freedom to use that power as you want. Also, we really need to find a better name than 'other power'. It's already a little cumbersome and confusing, and it's only going to get worse from here,"

 _"I'm sure we'll think of something, Just gotta make sure that it sounds cool,"_

"That being said, there's something else that's been bothering me a little," Nikki said as took out his pokédex.

 _"What is it?"_

"Well it's that…" he started as he went through the pokédex, looking for something, "Why does your hair look so stringy?"

 _"What are you talking about?"_

"Well it's just that most Kirlia have really straight hair," He said as he found what he was looking for and showed it to me. It was a picture of a Kirlia, but he looked a bit different from me. His hair was long, and not the tangled mess that I thought that Kirlia and Gardevoir hair was supposed to look like.

 _"Don't all Kirlia and Gardevoir have hair like mine though?"_ I said as I grabbed a lock of my hair to get a better look at it. It felt coarse and collected in clumps. Honestly, it looked like a mess of green wires.

"No, you're the only Kirlia I've ever heard of to have hair like yours,"

 _"Well that's weird, everyone from the Ralts line I've met has had hair like this. Well except for Wally's Gallade,"_ But didn't that mean…

I froze up as I suddenly realized something. The only other members of the Ralts line I knew were my family.

 _"Hey Nikki, can I ask you to buy something for me when we get back into town,"_

"Depends on what it is," He answered. "What do you need and why,"

* * *

Our first stop after getting back to town was an accessory store. I looked down the aisles and found what I was looking for easily enough.

"I would like to buy these," I told the cashier ad I placed three white ribbons on the counter. Brook had only asked for a single ribbon, but I figured having extra just in case wasn't that bad an idea.

I passed the ribbon to Brook once we got outside.

"So how are you going to do this?"

 _"Just watch and see,"_ She said as she started levitating the ribbon. With both of her hands free, she pulled back her hair into a back length ponytail. The ribbon floated back, and the tied itself around the base of the tail into a small bow. _"What do you think?"_

Her hair was still a bit stringy, but with it tied back like that, the worst of her wild hair was tamed. The exception was a single lock of hair near her brow that she had missed when she had pulled it all back.

The lock hung over Brook's face, making a 'C' shape over her forehead.

"I think it works," I told her as she looked around for some sort of reflective surface to look at herself in.

She did eventually spot one, a small fountain at the center of the small plaza we had found on our way back to the pokécenter.

 _"Ugh, looks like I messed up with the hair. Going to have to try again,"_ She said as she moved to push it to the side.

"Actually I think it looks cool, maybe you can leave it like that,"

Brook gently touched the lock out of place and hummed.

 _"I guess it does look kind of cool. I'm sure I can learn to ignore it,"_ She said with a shrug as we moved on back towards the pokécenter.

Normally this would have been the point where Brook went back into her pokéball to avoid the crowds. She didn't this time, preferring instead to walk next to me. It felt a little sad, to be honest.

I had gotten so used to having Brook on my shoulder that her absence was not easily ignored.

We made it to the pokécenter a little while later. Waiting for us in the lobby was a practically glowing Laura.

"Well don't you look… healthy,"

"Lavaridge has over a hundred different types of hot spring baths. In the last few days, I've tried almost half of them." She said, glowing with pride and healthy skin. "I've never felt so healthy,"

"You know I was wondering what you had been up to since we got here. In hindsight, that makes total sense,"

 _"She's such a freaking tourist,_ " Brook chuckled as she laughed from behind my legs.

Laura must have just noticed Brook, as she swung around me to get a better look at the psychic type.

"Oh, hey Brook," She smiled. "Nice ribbon, did Nikki tie it up for you?"

"No that was all her," I explained as Brook puffed up her chest in pride. "She actually tied it with her psychic powers."

"Good for you Brook," Laura said, to which Brook swished her hair. "So are we heading out soon? You said yesterday that you wanted to leave Lavaridge early. Not that I can blame you after that battle you had with Flannery,"

I rolled my eyes.

"We're not leaving early, we have to leave today if we want to make it to Fallarbor in time to meet up with Brendan," I explained in more detail than I had given her earlier today. "My original plan was to go through the desert on route 111 and come out the other side to head to Fortree. But it looks like we'll have to come back here, get my badge, and then head into the desert,"

 _"And I'll have my chance to redeem myself,"_ Brook pointed out, assuming that she'd be off battle probation by then. I mean, she probably would be, but that was beside the point.

"So, for now, we're going to have to take," I groaned in preparation for what I was about to say next. "The jagged path. I do not want to take the jagged path. It was terrible the last time I did it and I would rather not have to deal with it again,"

"Geez, what happened to make you hate the place so much?"

 _"Yeah, did the path beat you up and take your lunch or something?"_

"My parents took me there when I was younger. I fell off a cliff,"

Both Brook and Laura looked at each other, not sure what to say.

"So yeah, I have a reason to dislike this freaking path," I got the last word in as we walked into the pokécenter to pick up or stuff. The sooner we left, the sooner we would get out of jagged path.

About an hour later, we were walking around the side of the mountain on the path out of town. And it wasn't long until we came across…

"There it is," I said as the three of us came to stop. In front of us was a sign that read 'jagged path' starts here. I groaned as I looked up, and up, and up.

 _"Oh wow, it actually goes all the way up to the Volcano,"_

"I was not expecting to see this much verticality. Are we walking or climbing?"

"On jagged path, the two of those are one and the same," I answered as I took in my old nemesis.

Even from a distance, the path's name looked well earned.

Jagged Path was a rough and rocky depressed area in the volcano, making it look somewhat like a valley from the inside. This lower valley had a gentler slope than the rest of the mountain, making it the perfect place for a path up to the summit.

But 'more gentle' did not mean 'easy to travel through'. Instead, it meant terrain that would leave us tired in place of exhausted, heavy tree cover instead of sparse tree cover and cliffs that would break bones instead of killing you.

All in all, it promised to not be a fun time.

"Well, let's start climbing," I told them as I started walking. I put my foot up the first ledge and resigned myself to the start of a long climb.

It took about an hour for us to fall into a rhythm of walking, climbing and, in Brook's case, small boosts. I had been uneasy about letting her travel like that considering what had happened during training. However, after a few simple jumps early down in the lower parts of the path, Brook got back her ability to boost.

Both her power and size had grown, but in nowhere near the same amount. She had had to come up with a whole new set of formulas for power into distance based in her new weight. These short hops were pretty good for that.

But, there was still something a little off about it. Her jumps weren't as accurate as they had been when she was a Ralts. It wasn't enough for me to think she'd have any real issue in battle, but it was bad enough for me to worry anyway.

I was starting to worry that Brook would never have the same level of maneuverability that she had as a Ralts.

A little while later, we started hearing the sound of someone up ahead. I glanced over to both Laura and Brook, who both shrugged.

We started climbing at a bit of a quicker pace to find out what was going on.

* * *

"You're doing good Gale, keep it up," The sound turned out to be a trainer with a strange looking pokémon that I had never seen before. The strange pokémon was hopping around all over the place, moving from tree to stone to ledge and back again with ease.

Both pokémon and trainer stopped as the pair noticed us.

"Oh hello there, nice to meet you," The trainer said with a friendly smile.

My first thought was that she was fast. My second was that she was tiny. The third was that she was suddenly way too close to my face.

"Hi there. My name's Gale. What kind of pokémon are you? I'm new to the region so I'm meeting tons of new pokémon. Did you know that this place was birds with metal bodies? Like, how does that work? Wouldn't their wings be too heavy to fly then?"

I leaned back as the small furry pokémon that I know knew as Gale unleashed a torrent of words at me. The worst part was, I probably would have found this hilarious if it had happened to anyone else but me.

I was pretty sure that made me somewhat of a bad person, but I think I was okay with that.

"Easy, Gale," I heard the trainer say as she… he… they? Now that I got a good look, I really wasn't too sure. 'They' it was then. The point was, they pulled Gale away and held her in their arms. "Sorry about that, she tends to get a little excited around new people and pokémon. I'm not even sure what exactly she's saying, so I'm sorry if she said anything that offended,"

"Brook?"

 _"Barrage of question that completely overwhelmed by. Also something about a metal bird, I wasn't really that sure,"_ I said as I once again played translator. At this point, I was doing it so often that was I really 'playing translator' at this point?

"So apparently it was an overwhelming barrage of questions that had something to do a metal bird,"

"Did you just talk to your pokémon?" The new trainer asked.

"Nikki here can talk to his Kirlia Brook because psychic types," Laura explained.

"Oh wow, that is so cool,"

"Thanks. Like she said, my name's Nikki, and this is Laura and Brook," Nikki Said as he gestured towards Laura and then me. "What's yours?"

"My name's Chris, and this here is Gale,"

Gale was a small furry brown pokémon with long ears and covered by a yellowish cotton material on part of her body. I had to say I had never seen anyone quite like her before.

 _"Hey Nikki, ask him what kind of pokémon that Gale is,"_ I asked to settle my curiosity.

"I don't see why not," Nikki said, causing everyone else there to look a little confused. "Hey Chris, Brook wants to know what kind of pokémon Gale is,"

"Oh, she's a Buneary, all the way from Sinnoh, just like me,"

Sinnoh? I vaguely recalled something about Sinnoh, but I had no idea what it was. Well, now I knew it was a place. Maybe I would go there someday. I'd ask Nikki about it later.

"Sinnoh? That's pretty far from here, what brings you all the way down south here?"

"I felt like seeing a little of the world and I thought, why not Hoenn? So far, it seems like a good call."

I felt a sense of uneasiness come from Nikki via our connection. I wondered what that was about.

"Sounds fun, are you heading up or down the path?" Nikki asked as Laura poker her head forward.

"We're heading up to go over the mountain to Fallarbor Town,"

"Oh that's the same route that I'm taking," Chris said with a smile. "Well, it was at least. Got a little sidetracked by this place. I know I said that I wanted to see the world, but this place is making me a little homesick,"

"In what regard?" Nikki's eyebrows narrowed.

"A lot of Sinnoh, especially the part where I'm from, looks a lot like this route. I mean, it's a little rougher than normal, but not by too much,"

Nikki nodded before he looked down at me.

"Brook, do me a favor,"

 _"Sure,"_ I said, already having a clue on what he would ask.

"Remind me to never go to Sinnoh, like ever,"

"Oh come on, we're not that bad," Chris said with a laugh. "I mean, not everyone in Sinnoh is some crazy extreme mountain climber,"

"Just most of you," Laura laughed.

"Not even," Chris protested "But I will give you a sizable chunk of Sinnoh,"

I looked over at Gale who looked as lost as I did.

"Do you have any clue what these humans of ours are talking about?"

"Well Sinnoh has a lot of mountains, so I guess it's about that. No idea what's so funny though,"

We watched as the humans kept laughing and making small talk. I pursed my lips as I internally debated asking Nikki was the heck was going on.

"So what were you doing with your jumping around anyway?" I asked Gale, deciding to ignore the humans for now.

"I was working my legs and my jumps. Buneary like me evolve faster when they work their legs harder," She explained as she jumped from side to side. She glanced downwards at me. "You must be a great jumper with long legs like that,"

"Not really," I told her as I thought about how to explain. "Before I evolved, I had really short and stubby legs…" I told her about boosting and how I had moved around as a Ralts. I also told her how I had been having a little bit of trouble since evolving because my power to weight ratio had gotten all messed up.

"That sounds like trouble. Well, if you're having trouble with that boosting thing, why not try jumping normally?"

"That's, not the worst idea actually," I admitted as I moved from leg to leg. "Mind giving me a few pointers? You look like you know a bit more about jumping than me,"

"No problem," Gale said with a wide smile. "Okay, so the first thing you're going want to do is…"

What followed was a crash course on leaping. It started with Gale teaching me proper form for jumping, then how to land properly. I would have thought that I already knew how to do that, but it seemed that jumping without boosting was different enough that I had to relearn it.

By the time the humans finally noticed that we were doing something, I was already deep into making myself look like a fool.

"Brook what are you doing?" Nikki asked as I jumped from the top of a rock to a nearby tree. Or tried to jump at least. What actually happened was that I barely got off the ground before falling straight on my face.

 _"Gale's trying to teach me to jump good. Unlike the jumps, progress is noticeably not good,"_ I explained with my face still in the dirt.

"And you're doing it without boosting?" Nikki said, sounding how I probably would have if I had been in his place.

 _"I apparently have the right kind of legs for this kind of thing,"_ I explained both aloud and telepathically as I pushed myself up. I glanced over at Gale who was looking away from me. _"Or at least I'm supposed too,"_

"Well, I figured you would," Gale explained. "The most important part of jumping is long legs. At least that's what I learned from my old man,"

"Are you sure that's everything you needed to jump?" I said even as I tried not to think about how nice it must be to be able to trust their parents like that.

"Well, maybe there's something we're missing here…" Gale shrugged as I gave Nikki and by extension Chris and Laura the gist of our conversation.

"Gale," Chris said sounding exasperated, getting the bunny Pokémon's attention. "Buneary and Lopunny have dense leg muscles in addition to long legs. Kirlia have longs legs yeah, but they don't have the muscle density that you do. They don't have the power to do the kind of jumps you can,"

Power huh?

I opened myself to the sea of power and tried channeling the power into my legs. Not the tips like I had done for the kicks earlier, but into the whole leg. I caught sight if a flat rock up ahead on the path. Green light erupted from my legs, making everyone jump back a little.

I jumped, and this time I got the sort of air that I had been expecting.

I landed with a bit of a stumble but managed to balance myself easily enough. I turned around to Gale and Nikki and told them. _"Well if I don't have the muscle power, why not use psychic power?"_

"Well, that's one way to solve the issue," Nikki said with a shrug. "You're legs are still glowing though,"

Of course they were still glowing. I still had psychic power coursing through them. The drain from jumping was actually pretty low. I could probably keep this going for a while.

I told Gale as such, and soon both of our groups were heading upwards, Gale and I jumping up the path the whole time. We made good time that day, and I was exhausted by the time we stopped for the night.

According to Nikki, we were about halfway up the path at this point. I couldn't really see for myself or not with how dark it was, so I took his word for it.

Instead I was way more preoccupied with the way it felt like someone had filled my legs with acid.

"You did pretty well," I winced in pain as Gale smacked my back affectionately. I didn't say anything back, just nodding and walking towards the tent that Nikki was setting up.

* * *

I was pretty sure we were halfway up the path. I think. Maybe.

I titled my head at the pokénav, trying to make heads or tails of the disturbingly helpfully unhelpful map. Sure the little icon that represented my current location was halfway between the start of Jagged path and the summit, but there was a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen.

'This route has a high amount of vertical travel. As such the marker should not be used gauge distance traveled.'

"You okay?" Chris asked as they walked up to me.

"Kind of, I'd be nice to know how far we are from the top is all,"

The Sinnoh native looked up towards the top. Wasn't too sure why, I could barely make out the top of the mountain with how dark it was.

"I'd say we're about halfway up to the summit,"

I gave Chris a look that the Sinnoh native easily ignored. I guess if they were as used to navigating mountains as they claimed they were, then this would be old hat for them.

I left Chris to do what they wanted to do and instead decided to focus on setting up my own tent.

With that done quickly enough I sat down inside, and growled at the path I knew was outside. I probably shouldn't have been this petty about it but… actually, you know what, I had every right to be this petty. A broken leg at six years old is a big deal.

I let out a sigh as Brook stumbled into the tent. She wobbled as she swung her legs forward.

"You okay?" I said with a smug grin. I knew she was nowhere near okay but I think she knew that.

 _"My legs feel like they're on fire,"_ She complained as she collapsed next to me on my bedroll. _"Instead of using my power to jump directly, it turns out that I instead filled my muscles with it. So I pretty much just jumped my way through this freaking path,"_

"Well that sounds like fun," I said as I took out her pokéball. "Feel like passing out in your ball?"

She looked at the pokéball like she was seriously considering it. It took her a moment, but she shook her head no.

 _"No already missed your training yesterday. The last thing we need is to put it off anymore than we already have,"_ She told me even as she stayed collapsed on the ground.

"So aren't you going to, you know, sit up?"

She made some chirping sounds before suddenly coughing. _"Laughing hurts. Why does laughing hurt?"_ She groaned into the bedroll. _"I sit with my legs crossed to help me focus. Trying to force my legs to do that would probably make focusing way harder."_

"So you're going to train me,"

 _"While passed out with my face in the bed, yes,"_ Despite what she just said, she did at least shuffle her head to look directly at me. _"You ready?"_

I nodded and went to work training my slowly growing psychic power.

The connection between us was much stronger than it had been when we first started. I still couldn't open up a connection to Brook without her help, but I could speak to her telepathically.

 _"So jokes aside, how are your legs?"_ I asked, choosing to take advantage of my training to get a little conversation in.

 _"They hurt, but I think I'll be okay for tomorrow,"_ She admitted. _"What about you, why do you hate this place so much anyway?"_

 _"Like I said before, I fell off a cliff,"_

 _"In that case, you'd be dead, and I guess I would be too now that I think about it. So since neither of us are dead, as far as I know at least, then there must be some other reason,"_

As disturbing as it sounded, she wasn't wrong. I had saved her life when I found her in those woods. If I hadn't been around she would have starved to death or worse.

 _"Okay, so I really did fall off a cliff. It was just… a small cliff,"_

 _"How small?"_

 _"If I stood at the bottom now I could probably reach the top if I stretched my arms as far as I could,"_

 _"That's not a cliff!"_ Brook with enough force to actually destabilize the connection for a second. _"That's a ledge at worst,"_

 _"Well call it what you want, the important part for me is that I broke my arm and missed out my chance to play baseball. I was really looking forward to playing that summer when I got back from the trip too."_

The connection between us went quite after that. I worried for a second that something had happened with the connection and that was why Brook was silent.

 _"Okay so is this the part where I pretend to know what baseball is or what?_ "

 _"You don't know what, never mind you not knowing baseball makes perfect sense,"_

What followed was a telepathic conversation in which I attempted to teach a Pokémon what baseball was. All things considered, it wasn't as hard as I would have expected it to be. She had the concept pretty much down by the time we finished. It also allowed me to practice showing her things from my memories.

She managed to get a promise to show her a game when we got the chance when I felt a sudden tug from the outside.

 _"You feel that?"_ I asked as the tug suddenly got stronger.

 _"Feel what?"_ Brook responded before her eyebrow rose. _"Oh, feels like someone trying to get our attention. Now that I think about it, didn't we tell Laura to try to shake us out of this if we stayed in too long?"_

 _"Yeah, we did now that I think about it. The whole baseball thing must have taken too long,"_

We both got out of the shared space and I opened my eyes to Laura's concerned face.

"Hey, you okay? You guys are usually done by now." She asked as I saw Vimilky shake a still exhausted Brook.

"Yeah, we got a bit sidetracked talking about baseball. I should look up and see if there are any games that we can go to."

 _"Why do I have a feeling like I've just started walking down a dark path?"_ Brook double spoke as she motioned towards me. Her pokéball clipped off me and floated towards her. _"Well, I'm going to go to sleep before I pass out here. Peace,"_

The button on her ball clicked as Brook vanished in red light.

"No matter how many times I see that, I still can't wrap my mind around it," She said dryly as brook's pokéball hit the ground.

"What can I say, Brook a unique soul," My mind flashed back to her… family situation as I grimaced. "For better or for worse,"

Seeing that no one else was doing it, Vimilky grabbed the pokéball and walked over to me.

"Thanks Vimilky," I told her as she passed me Brook's pokéball.

With all that settles, I got ready to sleep myself. The faster I went to sleep, the faster I would wake up, the faster I would get past this stupid path.

* * *

"Hey Brook, you ready for another day of jump training jump buddy?"

I looked upon the overly cheery Buneary with the most wicked of glares that I could muster.

 _"Hey Nikki"_ I said, trying to not speak aloud at the same time. _"Does my no battle thing cover blasting annoyingly cheerful slave drivers off cliffs?"_

"Slave-driver? Me?" Gale said in faux outrage. She didn't even try to keep up the act. Sticking her tongue out at me and winking afterwards. I guess I must have said that part aloud anyway.

Oh well.

"No blasting people off cliffs," Nikki answered absentmindedly as he made breakfast.

 _"With the way she was jumping yesterday, I'm sure she'd be fine,"_

"No means no Brook, we don't have time to wait for her to catch up to us,"

"You know… I probably wouldn't take too long to catch up to you guys," She suddenly stopped to gasp for breath. "I could make it a speed challenge," She said, sounding way too excited.

 _"Okay so I can't blast her off the cliff, how about punting her with one of those boosted kicks,"_

"I would rather you didn't" He said as he set aside the food for the four of us. "With how strong those kicks of yours were, we'd probably spend half the day waiting for her to catch up. We are not staying on jagged path for that long,"

Khesen and Milk grabbed their food and then backed away. Nikki picked up his breakfast and froze as the food was halfway between his plate and his mouth.

"Also you'd probably kill her at this height or something,"

 _"I guess you have a point with that one,"_

"Oh please, like you could kill me," Gale said smugly as she patted my head.

 _"Oh now you're just pushing it,"_

"No killing other pokémon Brook," He chided as I forced my legs to walk over where he set down my food. They burned with agony with every step but I got there and plopped myself down to eat.

"Are they always like this?" Chris commented as they ate next to Laura and her pokémon.

"Not really, I guess this path is really getting to them,"

"It's still weird to see Gale in a conversation with another human though. Like, I kind of understand her when we talk, but nothing like this,"

"What are you even arguing about anyway?" Laura asked.

"Brook's still dead tired from yesterday, my hatred of Jagged Path is the same as ever and Gale's cheeriness is not helping," Nikki explained before biting eating into his food. "As such I'm currently considering Brook's request to blast Gale of the side off the mountain,"

"I'd rather you didn't," Chris said with a laugh as they walked over and scooped up Gale. "Gale, maybe you should let Brook be for a bit?"

"But I was having fun," She whined as I felt the soreness in my legs flare again.

"Look on the bright side Brook, I think the pain meant that your little work out worked," Nikki said, cruelly joking. We really did need to finish this leg of our adventure, this path was really getting to him.


	14. Episode 14

**Episode 14: A Race to the Bottom**

* * *

"Freedom!" I yelled in cheer as I burst out of the horrid path. No more would that cliff-filled nightmare haunt my waking hours in addition to my sleeping ones. I could feel the chains of jaggedness loosen and fall away as I took in the volcano top before me.  
 _  
"Nikki, are you okay?"_ Brook asked me, unaware of just how happy a day this was. Oh, how glorious this day was. From now on, this would be a day to remember, a day to go down in history. A day that would be known as 'jagged path is done' Day.

"He-he… Hahahahaha!"

* * *

"And he's done," I said aloud without bothering to say it psychically. The only one who would have been able to hear me would have been Nikki. And at the moment he was a bit busy with…

"Hahahahaha!"

That.

I let him be for now and took in the surroundings.

The top of Mount Chimney was breathtaking. It reminded me of that night I decided to head out. Those pokémon had told me about the volcano. How it felt like you could see all of Hoenn from the top. After having to be told what Hoenn exactly was, I couldn't believe it.

Now that I was here, I got what they were talking about. From up here, everything looked so small, with land as far as the eye could see. It would have been a pretty breathtaking moment…

"Hahahahaha,"

If Nikki would stop laughing like a maniac at least.

 _"Hey, could you knock it off?"_ I yelled at him mentally to no effect.

"Forget it Brook, Looks like he's going to be out of it for a while," Laura said as she walked past the still laughing Nikki. "There's a pokécenter over there, Nikki met us there once you calm down a little,"

Laura starting walking over to the small building. I hadn't really noticed at first, but there was a bit more stuff here n second glance. Not only was there a pokécenter, but there was also a few other small wooden buildings and sings scattered around.

"We'll see you in a bit then," Chis said as they followed after Laura.

"You coming Brook?" Gale asked from Chris's shoulder as they walked away.

"I'll pass. Better to wait for him to calm down out here I guess," I told the Buneary with a narrowed gaze. I was still a little bitter at her for not warning me about the whole, your body will hurt after exercise' thing.

I sat down and put my back to Nikki's leg as he kept laughing. I had a feeling that I was going to be waiting a while.

Nikki stopped laughing after a while, he didn't have unlimited lung capacity after all. I thought that this meant that we could move on.

I was wrong.

 _"So are we going to head to the pokécenter or what?"_

"Brook, just… just let me have this for a little while more,"

I rolled my eyes and decided to kill a bit of time. There were a few other buildings and stuff up here, might as well see if there was anything else worth looking at.

I wasn't about to abandon Nikki though, just had to make sure to keep him in my sights.

The first thing I noticed was what looked like a bunch of humans and pokémon gathered around a signpost of some sort. I squeezed through, taking advantage of my short height compared to the rest of the crowd.

It was at this point that I realized that I never learned how to read human script. Now how was I supposed to read this stupid sign and learn what was on the board?

"Oh my, what's this?" A familiar sounding human voice said as the source of it walked over me. "A race to the bottom of the mountain down the slope? With each trainer being allowed one pokémon to aid them? And the whole thing takes place tomorrow to boot,"

Well, that was convenient, I would have to thank Linguini for reading that for me via Nikki later.

Wait Linguini?

"Oh, I will just have to enter this,"

No, I hadn't gone mad. It was indeed the oddly dressed trainer that we had faced off against on that boat ride. He hadn't changed a bit it seemed, in either mannerisms or clothing.

I still had no clue what he was trying to with that weird ribbon shirt.

"Oh hey, it's you," I chirped at him. While it felt a little weird to try and act friendly, I had my reasons. Mostly hoping that the shook of seeing Linguini again might snap Nikki out of this weird mood he was in.

At first, I thought that he wouldn't notice me, but after a second or two, he took note.

"A Kirlia with a green bandana?" He said as he placed one hand on his hip and the other on his chin. "Why does that strike me as most familiar?"

Maybe because you've seen a Ralts wearing the same freaking bandanna a few…

"Oh right, I fought a trainer with a Ralts wearing a green bandana just like that one. It was on that little boat trip from Dewford to Petalburg If I do remember,"

Did, did he not realize that I was the same Ralts?

"Yes I remember now, her trainer had a nickname for her too. What was it again? Oh yes, it was… what was it again?"

"Brook!"

I turned around and smiled. It looked like Nikki had finally snapped out of his little episode long enough to realize that I was gone.

"Oh my Nicholas Maple, what are the odds of running into you again?" Linguine turned with an unneeded amount of style as Nikki approached. Nikki stood over me and looked at Linguini with a confused look.

"Oh hey, you're…" Linguini closed his eyes ready to be recognized. "That trainer that I fought on the boat,"

That face Linguini made just now. That look, like he had just choked on a piece of food that he hadn't even known he was eating, that look made this entire trip up the mountain worth it.

"Do you not remember my name?" He asked, the tears starting to form in his eyes. Or maybe that was just my imagination.

"No, I remember it. It was…"

Oh, this was just sad, might as well throw him a lifeline.

 _"His name was Linguini. How do I remember this and you don't?"_ I said as I rolled my eyes as I informed him privately.

"Linguini, Your name was Linguini. See I told you I remembered,"

The strange trainer narrowed his eyes.

"I can't shake the feeling that you cheated somehow. Well, no matter, how have you been since we met last?"

"Pretty good I guess," He said as winced a bit, "Few sore spots, but I have two badges, so I at least have that going for me,"

"Third badge curse?" Linguini asked with a pained look on his face. "With what's around here I'm guessing either Flannery or your Uncle," He suddenly got a pensive look on his face. "Now that I think about it, all three of the pokémon you used in our little battle had some sort of disadvantage against fire,"

"It was Flannery," Nikki said, confirming what Linguini was probably thinking. "It's fine though, going to take a bit of time and then double back for a rematch," He said sounding confident. "So what was everyone gathered around this board for anyway?"

 _"You're not going to believe it_ _Nikki, There's this…"_

"You are just in luck Nicholas Maple. You happened upon the top of Mount Chimney just in time for a most exciting event. For you see, every year, there is a race down the northeast slope of the mountain. The winner gets a trophy to their name and a small prize. I myself am planning to enter," He said with a flourish as he held his hand out towards Nikki. "Will you join me on the sloops? I have to admit that now that I've seen you again, I find myself wanting a rematch,"

Nikki looked at Linguini before looking over to the board. He read through it while nodding his head. "I can't believe I forgot about the race. Well, I can believe it, it's not exactly the biggest pokémon related event of the year. Still, it sounds kind of fun," He looked at Linguini and smiled. "You're on, I'll see you tomorrow at the slopes,"

"Good, I'll see you there," He said with another flourish before walking away. Nikki let out a weak chuckle before walking away as I followed behind him.

"A race huh? What do you think Brook," He asked once we were far away enough from the crowd to not look too weird talking to each other.

 _"This is going to be amazing,"_ I answered honestly, _"I don't even care about winning, sliding down the side of a mountain with you just sounds like plain fun,"_

"You're still going to try your best to win this though?"

 _"Oh yeah, without a doubt,"_ I gulped as I suddenly remembered why it was that I was banned from battles for the time being. _"Well within reason of course. A race like this is not killing myself for,"_

"Well that's good, say, did you know where Laura and Chris are. I know they said something about meeting up with us later, but I didn't hear them say where.

 _"Pokécenter,"_ I said plainly as I pointed at the building in question. _"We should head over there before they start worrying about you,"_

"Don't you mean us?"

I gave Nikki the best dead-eyed stare I had.

 _"Nikki only one of us was laughing like a maniac into the sky, I was going to be fine,"_

"Okay, you know what, fair." He said as we started walking towards the center. "Come on, let's see if either of them are up for joining the race too,"

* * *

"A race to the bottom of the slope? I think I'll pass,"

"Same here, the only pokémon I have on me is Gale and I'm not too sure how she could help,"

I narrowed my eyes at both Laura and Chris. "Cowards, the both of you," I declared then, only half-jokingly. "Guess it's up to me to win then,"

"Go for it. We'll be cheering you on, from the safety of the cable car of course," Laura said as she glanced back down at the small pamphlet I had brought them. "Have to say, wouldn't have expected you to go for this. Don't we have to reach Fallarbor to meet up with your cousin?"

"The slope ends pretty close to Fallarbor anyway so we're fine," I explained. "We'll make it a day early actually,"

"Oh, so it's fine then," Laura said as she laid back on her bed and yawned. "Wow, I'm tired for how early it is. So what's your plan for the race?"

"Well, the two options are either riding a pokémon down the slope or riding with your pokémon on a dirtboard. Khesen is two big and two small, Vimilky is a bit too heavy to ride with so that only leaves…"

There was a burst of white light that erupted from my chest and ran straight to the floor. The light faded away, revealing a short Kirlia. A mysterious white helmet with black visor hid their identity, even as their crossed arms and eyeless glare marked them as not one to be trifled with.

"Brook where did you get that helmet?" I said, not even bothering to keep the joke going any further then it had already gone.

Brook just gave me a look followed by a thumbs up.

What followed a moment later was a second flash of white light. Vimilky emerged from her pokéball and said something I couldn't understand as she slapped the back of Brook's head. She chirped something in response before taking the helmet off.

 _"Neither of you are any fun sometimes, you know that?"_ She told the two of us. Vimilky said something in response as Brook pouted and put back on her green bandana and ribbon.

Vimilky said something else that I couldn't understand before rolling her eyes. I ignored her for the time being to ask the much more pressing question.

"No really Brook, where did you get this helmet?" I said as I picked up the featureless white helmet off the floor. It didn't even have any sort of logo or tag on the inside.

 _"No idea, it was just in my pokéball for some reason. Thought it looked cool so I put it on. It felt fitting with the whole racing thing,"_ She explained as she sat down on the bed next to me, her legs crossed together as they swung back and forth.

I opened my mouth to point out how insane that sounded when I was interrupted by my Dex beeping. I picked it up and saw that I had a call of all things, and it was from Mica, the mad pokédex modder that had upgraded my dex. I clicked the button and a frantic looking Mica appeared on the screen. I noted that she was still wearing the same thick-rimmed glasses and black t-shirt.

"Hey, short stuff, how you doing?" She opened with. I had to admit, wasn't too sure how to answer that.

"Oh hey Mica," I said trying out a response. "I'm good what abou…"

"Yeah, that's great. Listen, have any of your pokémon found a certain purple and green helmet?"

I glanced down at the blank helmet on the bed next to me.

"Green and purple, no. But my Kirlia did find…" I said as I angled the camera at the helmet.

"Well, it looks like the color fading is still an issue…" She said as she looked off to the side. Based on the way she muttered afterward, I was pretty sure she was writing something down.

"Alright, I'm just going to cut to the chase. Where exactly did this helmet come from?"

"Okay, so you know how the pokéball transport system allows trainers to teleport and store their pokémon right?"

"Oh no," I could already see where this was going. "You tried to make your own version as a pokédex feature, didn't you?"

"Well look at the big brains on you," She said, looking unsarcastically impressed. "You got it figured out, machine still has a few problems. You know, like teleporting objects to semi-random locations, and making them lose all color,"

 _"Tell her it smelled like fresh baked bread,"_

I jumped a little as Brook suddenly sent me the psychic message.

"Give me a second Mica," I told the crazy pokédex modder before turning to Brook. "What are you talking about?"

 _"When I first found the helmet, the inside and outside smelled like fresh bread. The smell went away after a little bit though,"_

That only raised more questions.

"So apparently the helmet smelled like fresh bread when my Kirlia found it," I said as I turned back to Mica. She got a pensive look on her face before pushing up the bridge of her glasses with her finger.

"Oh, well at least that makes sense,"

And that just raised even further questions.

"So if you don't mind me asking…" I said as a question poked into my head. "This is all legal right?"

"Completely legal, as long as I don't try to make any money with it and make sure that anyone who uses it fills out a form,"

Yeah, I guess that made sense. She had told me roughly the same thing when she modded my pokédex.

But in that case, why did May tell Laura that Mica charged so much when she claimed that she could only do stuff like that for free?

"Hey, you okay kid? You look like you froze up there,"

"I'm fine, sorry about that," I said with a nervous laugh as I snapped out of my thoughts. Worrying thoughts about May could be shelved for a later date. "By the way, I'm planning on entering the race down Mount Chimney. The race is tomorrow, so watch it if you have the time I guess,"

She suddenly froze in place and for a second I was worried that the connection had cut out.

"Mica? Are you…"

"The stupid race is tomorrow?" She suddenly screamed, making everyone else in the room jump with how loud she was. "Going to have to let you go kid, I have some people who I promised to meet up with to watch the race with. See you around," She finally said before the call cut out.

"So," Laura said as she leaned over. "You get the feeling that she forgot your name?"

"Yeah I got that feeling," I admitted as I thought back to that conversation.

"Never a dull day with you guys huh?" Chris asked with a laugh.

"Not really," I admitted as I thought back on my journey, "We have plenty of dull days, but the not dull days just tend to be really, really not dull so it balances out I guess," I explained, trying to not think about that time Vimilky and I accidentally caused half of Dewford port to get blown up by a rampaging Aggron.

Not one of my best days if I had to be honest.

"Well, I'm going to leave my stuff here before heading out and preparing for the race," I explained as I set my bag down next to the empty bed. I grabbed everyone's pokéballs and motioned for Vimilky and Brook to follow me.

The helmet stayed where it was for now.

* * *

"So what's our first move?" I asked as the doors of the pokécenter closed behind us. Milk had chosen to go back into her ball, so it was just the two of us.

"Well the first thing we have to do is find a certain store," Nikki explained as he scanned our surroundings. He must have found what he was looking for because he suddenly started smiling. "There it is. Come on Brook,"

I followed after him and soon saw where it was that we were heading to.

It was a small store, with a large wheel at the top. Inside I could see a bunch of wooden boards with wheels on them.

We stepped in and were immediately met with an overly cheery and excessively friendly attendant.

"Why hello there," She said in a chipper tone as she moved around us, getting way to close at times. "Are you here to buy or rent a board for the big race tomorrow? In that case, we have plenty of racing boards all lined up on the wall over there," She finished in a pose that left her standing on one leg and with both hands pointing towards a wall filled with boards.

"Ye… yeah that's why, I'm here," Poor Nikki, he was clearly overwhelmed. And there was honestly something a bit sketchy about this girl.

I sighed and, using only the tiniest bit of my power, jumped onto the back of his head. He freaked out a little before realizing that it was just me. "Brook, what are you doing?"

 _"Calm down and remember why we're here. I don't trust this girl so keep on your toes,"_

Nikki gave me a raised eyebrow at that.

"Sorry about my Kirlia, she's usually much calmer," Nikki said to the sales girl. "Yeah, we're here to buy a board, one for both us actually,"

"That's great," She said before looking away for a moment.

Now even after having my empathy sense unlocked with the help of Dense Flower, I was still a novice at it. I still needed to concentrate on a person I knew well to get it to work, and I was still miles away from being able to use it on everyone I met.

None of that mattered one bit, I was still able to feel the wave of malice that rolled of the girl in that moment she looked away.

"Well in that case," She said with a pretty smile on her face. My eyes narrowed as I dropped from Nikki's shoulders, this was it. "You'll also need to buy a helmet for both you and you're pokémon," She said as she somehow produced two helmets out of nowhere. She put them both in Nikki's arms before dashing away. "As well as some safety gear, maybe some tape, how about some athletic clothing, heck, why not a helmet mountable camera to record your race?" She said, objects appearing in Nikki's arms as she went on and on. By the time she was done, Nikki was carrying a mountain of stuff.

"I'll even throw in some insurance for all this stuff, just for you," She said with that same annoying smile like she was doing us the biggest favor in the world.

"Okay I do need some of this stuff, but not all of it. Brook, could you help me out with some of this stuff,"

 _"So this was her game, sell us useless stuff we don't need to make a profit,"_ I said as I took some of the stuff off his arms. I blinked as I noticed two particular objects around halfway through the pile.

 _"Well, at least she had good taste in headwear. This helmet looks pretty cool,"_

The helmet in question was mostly white, with two crimson- colored raised sections that were probably for holding the horns of a Kirlia.

"Listen, this is just pretty basic gear, every racer out there tomorrow is going to be using all this stuff at minimum. If you don't use it you're going to be at a big disadvantage," I didn't appreciate the know-it-all tone she was using.

"I've been dirt boarding before Miss, I think that Brook and I will be just fine," Nikki told her as he started grabbing a few things from the pile, mostly the helmets, safety pads and what looked like a hip mounted water bottle holder.

"If you say so," She said with a shrug as she took back all of the stuff she gave us except the things that Nikki was holding onto.

"Come on Brook, let's go look at those dirt boards," Nikki told me as the pair of us walked to a wall filled with boards that I had seen earlier.

They looked a bit odd. They reminded me of those skateboards that I had seen humans ride on from time to time. They were still a bit different though. They were a bit longer and in place of the small, smooth wheels they had bigger wheels with treads on them.

"So these are dirt boards," I said as Nikki took a board from off the wall. It was a dark blue, with a single green stripe going right down the middle. He took the board and looked at it from several angles before nodding.

"This one will do," He told me as he held the board out to me. "What do you think?"

 _"Looks good to me, but how are we both going to fit on it?"_

"Well I have two ideas for that," He placed the board down and crouched to my level. He made v signs with both of his hands and placed them on the board. "We can either both ride on the board or," He placed one hand on top of the other. "You can ride on my shoulders,"

 _"Which one would work better?"_

"No idea, I'll be taking this," He said as he set the board and the rest of the stuff down in front of the clerk.

Soon afterward, we were walking out of the store with all of the stuff in a bag.

"There should be a few smaller slopes on the north side of the mountain. Let's go practice for tomorrow,"

 _"Lead the way,"_ I said as we walked towards the slope.

* * *

"Alright, you ready?"

 _"You know it,"_

"Your helmet on right?"

 _"Yes it fine. Now let's go,"_

I kicked off, Brook and I balancing on the board as it went down the slope. I weighed more than her, so it was up to me shift my weight.

The slope wasn't all that steep or long, meant mostly for people to practice on. It was mostly empty, the only other people I saw on the way up were a parent and child duo and a couple that looked like they were on a date.

"Shift right," I said as I started leaning slightly, Brook moving her body to match mine.

"Now left," We shifted to the side again, avoiding a small rock on the slope.

We shifted a few more times as I realized what our problem was.

Brook let out a squeak of joy as we came to a stop at the bottom of the slope. I picked the board up and the two of us started up the path to the top again.

 _"That was amazing, never knew that I would be so good at this. Come on, let's do it again,"_ I cringed as I got ready to explain the issue.

"Brook, about that," Her expression shifted before my eyes, going from joy to annoyance. "You didn't really… do anything,"

 _"What do you mean?"_

"Well, you just weigh so little that it didn't have any effect on the board,"

Even after all of our traveling, training, and proper eating, Brook was still a bit on the scrawny side. She was both a bit shorter and skinnier than an average Kirlia. From what the Professor had told me when I had brought it up, it looked like she would also be a small Gardevoir if she evolved again. All this meant that she didn't have that much weight to shift.

"I'm pretty sure that you could just stand completely still, and it wouldn't throw off the board that much. You also can't do that much from there."

 _"Well what about that other way, with me riding on your shoulders?"_

"We might just have to do that. Plus, you'll probably be able to do a lot more from up there then from down here,"

We reached the top of the slope before long. I set the board down before crouching down. Brook jumped on my back, sitting on my shoulders, her legs wrapped around my arms and her upper body draped over my helmet.

I stood still a moment, making sure that her presence wasn't throwing off my balance too much.

"You ready to do this?" I said as I stepped on the board and eyed the slope.

 _"You know I am,"_

I kicked off, Brook cheering as we started going downhill. I shifted side to side, moving just as easily as before. It looked like even with Brook's added weight, I was still going at roughly the same speed.

 _"Hey Nikki, are we good?"_

I nodded, knowing full well what happens when you try to talk on a dirtboard from experience.

 _"Okay, so I'm going to count down. When I say 'now' get ready for a burst of speed,"_

I had a bit of an idea of what she had planned. I didn't say anything, which Brook must have interpreted as a go-ahead because she started counting.

 _"3, 2, 1, now!"_

I braced myself as I felt the promised burst of speed. I shook from side to side as I felt the sudden push into my upper back. I knelt down a bit, stabilizing myself so that the push came straight on instead of at an angle.

I sped down the slope. I blasted past the parent and child, past the couple, past my Mom, I passed everyone. At some point, the push cut out, but I barely noticed. At the speed I was going, I had all the momentum I needed to get to the end of the slope.

In fact, I think I may have had a bit too much.

"Oh no," I mumbled under my breath as we got close to the bottom of the slope. I swerved back and forth in an attempt to slow down before I crashed at the bottom of the slope.

 _"_ Brook, slow us down!" I said, taking the risk that I would bite my tongue.

 _"You got it,"_ She said, sounding completely unconcerned. I glanced up and saw her push her arms out in front of us. She shot off a weak burst of confusion from those hands. The burst was enough to slow us down, but not enough to throw us off balance.

"Perfect, keep that up," I told her as she let out a few more bursts of psychic power. I swerved the board and planted my foot into the ground, coming to a complete stop.

 _"That was amazing,"_ Brook jumped off my back and yelled in joy. _"We are going to crush this race,"_

"You do realize that I only dirtboard a few times a year and that a lot of the people who we're going to be up against have way more experience than us," I told her, trying to bring her down back to earth a bit. "We're probably not going to win this,"

 _"Don't care, we're still going to win this, I can feel it in my bones,"_ She said as she placed her arms on her hips and let out a hearty laugh. Both the pose and the laugh looked off coming from something as small and high pitched as a Kirlia, but I decided to let it go.

Not like I had much room to stand on after what I did upon finishing the Jagged Path.

"Come on Brook, if we are going to win, we're going to need to get in as much practice as we can," I said with a laugh as the two of headed up to the top of the slope again.

As we walked up, I couldn't help but feel like I had missed something on the way down.

We got back to the pokécenter in short order. After a quick shower, meal, and talking to Chris and Laura, Brook and I got ready for nightly psychic training.

 _"Okay, are you ready?"_ Brook asked me as the two of us sat crossed legged on my bed opposite to each.

"Ready," I told her as we both closed our eyes.

The connection between us opened near instantly. Unlike the floating void of our last training session, Brook had gone for something a bit more solid.

 _"You like it, I based it off a movie that I watched once,"_ She explained as she made a wide, sweeping gesture to the area around us.

Well, it was an interesting looking place, I'd give her that.

We were both standing on what looked the ramparts of an old castle. I looked over the side and saw a long expanse of clear water that reached the horizon. In fact, there appeared to be water in every direction.

 _"So either this castle is somehow floating on the water, or it takes up a whole island,"_ I commentated as I draped myself over the side.

 _"It's the latter,"_ She said as she balanced on edge of the rock. Down below, I could hear the sounds of the waves crashing against the stone. Still, there was something weird about what Brook said.

 _"When did you even watch a movie in the first place? I know that our collection at home doesn't have anything like this,"_ I told her as I thought back to the small collection of movies we had at home.

 _"Did you know that one of the modification on your pokédex lets us watch movies while inside them?"_ She explained as she started walking down the side of the castle.

 _"You know I'm getting increasingly concerned about these mods as time passes,"_ I told her as I followed after her.

 _"I'm sure that it's fine. Gives me something to watch and listen to do while training so I don't really mind."_ Brook suddenly stopped before looking down the side at the water below. She jumped to the side as spot she had been standing on folded away and became a descending staircase.

We started walking downwards. We were about halfway to the water when I started making conversation again.

 _"So, the race,"_

The second after those words left my lips, the staircase below us smoothed out into a stone ramp. A wet stone ramp that probably didn't offer much traction when dry. Needless to say, we started sliding down at a brisk pace.

Despite the speed, we kept talking with the same calm tone that we had beforehand.

 _"I'm pumped, I know you've said that we're probably not going to win, but I don't care. I'm still going to give it my all, not because I'm scared to lose, but because I really just want to win,"_ She explained as we hit the water without a splash. The stone ramp kept going, and we kept sliding downwards with it.

 _"As long as you know that win or lose, we're still a team," "Have to be honest, if I wasn't teamed up with someone like you, I think I might have given up after that second badge,"_ I said as large crystals in the shape of the Knuckle and stone badge flew past us.

 _"Two is good enough for a lot of trainers' right?"_ She said as a crystal Riolu and Nosepass passes by us.

 _"Yeah, for ordinary trainers, two badges is enough,"_ She said as I spotted what looked like the seafloor below us.

 _"Oh, and what makes you unordinary?"_

 _"I have you on my team don't I? Can't be an ordinary trainer if I have an extraordinary pokémon like you on the team,"_ I told her as we reached the bottom of the ramp.

 _"Thanks,"_ She said as a huge smile broke out on her face. _"Changing the subject for a bit, do you have any other ideas for the race tomorrow? We need to practice some psychic communication, might as well plan at the same time,"_

And with that, we both started talking at the bottom of the sea.

* * *

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready. I let out a yawn and did a few stretches while I waited for everyone else to get up. Based off how things normally went, it wouldn't be too long.

The humans in our little group woke up not long after, just as I predicted. I left my pokéball and quickly claimed the bathroom and the first shower.

The pokéball had everything a pokémon could need to maintain a level of proper hygiene above that found in the wild. However it seemed that hot water wasn't on that list, so I had just reached the point that I always took a hot bath in the pokécenter and hotel bathrooms whenever I could.

Now that I thought about it, I had never gotten the chance to try out those hot springs in Lavaridge that everyone talked about. I would have to fix that when we went back.

"So what are you two going to do?" Nikki asked the two other humans of our little group as we all ate breakfast.

"Well, Chris and I are going to take the cable car down to the bottom of the mountain. We'll be watching the race from there. I figure that we'll just meet up at the bottom of the car,"

"Sorry to say, but Gale and I are going to have to split off from you guys at that point," Chris explained before biting into his food.

"I'm going to miss you Brook," Gale told me, a tear in her eye.

 _"Hey Nikki, can you check your pokédex to see if Buneary can learn fake tears?"_

Nikki didn't even hesitate, whipping out his pokédex without saying a word.

"Looks like they can," He said after about a second of searching.

"You guys are so mean to me," Gale said as her tears suddenly cut off. "I am going to miss you though. Not too often that I get to run someone through the wringer like I did you,"

"You are an evil little bunny you know that?" I told her as Chris let out a good-natured chuckle from his spot at the table.

"I don't think I'm going to get used to seeing Gale acting the way she does with you and you Kirlia," He told Nikki as he finished off his food.

The rest of us finished soon after, and before I knew it, we were standing at the edge of the slope.

I looked down at the slope from my spot on Nikki's shoulders and swallowed. I wasn't going to lie, we were pretty high up and this slope looked to go down all the way to the base of the mountain.

In front of us was an expanse of smooth red rock, broken up by the occasional outcropping that looked like it had been shaped to act as a ramp. Further down, we could see the point where the trees started, but lucky, the slope itself was clear of trees. Off to the side, I could see the cable car that would be taking the others down.

"You ready?" Nikki asked as we took our position at the starting line. There weren't that many other trainer pokémon pairs up here with us. I counted Linguini with that scyther of his, and maybe eight other pairs.

"Ladies and gentlemen," A voice said from a nearby speaker. "I hope you're all ready for this year's race to the bottom. It looks like all of the contestants have taken their place,"

The voice said a few more things that I didn't really pay too much attention to, until finally I heard the magic words.

"Racers, get ready,"

Nikki leaned forward as I adjusted myself on his shoulders.

"Get set,"

Nikki placed his foot on the ground, ready to kick off.

"Go!"

Nikki pushed hard and soon we were on our way down the slope.

I let out an excited yell as I felt the air rush past me. Once I got that out of me, I looked on either side of us. After a few seconds, the racers had split in two. In front of us was a pack of a few racers competing for first. Around us was a second pack trying to come in last.

To our right was a trainer that had had the same idea as us. He was riding with some sort of skinny grass type with a yellow face that had their limbs wrapped around their shoulders.

To our left was a trainer that looked even a little smaller and younger than Nikki who was just straight up riding a blue pokémon covered in yellow fur.

The riding trainer and I locked eyes before she suddenly turned away said something to her pokémon. The blue pokémon barked something that I couldn't make out before the pair sped up and started putting some distance between us.

She looked back at us for just a moment. At that moment she dragged her eye down and stuck her tongue out at me.

 _"Get ready for a boost,"_ I told Nikki as I started focusing my powers into my hands. As much as I could, as fast as I could. I could hear the world begin to distort with the amount of power that I was putting into there.

Nikki adjusted himself and I unleashed my psychic might. It felt like there was a sudden explosion behind us as we were sent flying forward. Nikki screamed as he started swerving from side to side.

"Brook, why?" Nikki yelled as he stabilized us just as we rushed past that rude kid from earlier.

 _"Because a lesson needed to be taught,"_ I said as I looked behind us and saw a trainer riding with a small orange coated pokémon with a black body at the front of their board. The pokémon was shooting a beam of white at the ground right in front of the pair, turning it into ice.

Felt like cheating to me but no one was saying anything about it so I guess it was fine.

What mattered more was the fact that they were building momentum. I wasn't about to let them overtake us. I started charging my power again.

 _"Get ready for another boost,"_

"Wait why?"

 _"The two behind us are gaining on us,"_

"That might not…"

Nikki stopped talking for some reason, so I figured that he had changed his mind on this. I charged my power in my hands once more.

* * *

I screamed in my mouth as I rolled my tongue around in an attempt to dull the pain. Just like I had told Brook before, I talked in the race and bit my tongue.

What did she say she was going to do again?

Oh right.

Oh no.

 _"Let's go!"_

I shifted and felt another explosion of force come from behind. As we boosted forward, we started leaving the backpack behind and started gaining on the front pack. Which was nice.

Less nice was the way we blasted forward in an uncontrollable frenzy. I shifted left and right, trying to stabilize myself as the stone path zoomed towards me.

Okay, so I think that I had a handle on this and was that a ramp?

I screamed internally as we went up the ramp and boosted off. I glanced downwards and saw three racers looking up at me.

Well, might as well take advantage of the situation. I ducked down and grabbed the side of my board and tilted it a bit before letting go. I hit the ground and wobbled a bit, but kept going even as a girl on a Dodrio started running alongside me.

I leaned to the side as one of the heads reached out to try to bite me. With Brook busy keeping me going fast, it was up to me to avoid the hits. I kept leaning leftwards as the Dodrio kept pushing me.

I made a quick glance to the left and saw that I was going to be pushed right into the trees. I needed to get out of this right now. But how? I couldn't really slow down with Brook boosting me along. I needed to speed up, but I couldn't exactly tell her that with my tongue like this.

Or could I?

I took deep breaths, trying my best to calm myself while going down the side of a mountain protected by nothing but a helmet and a few pads.

Once I was as calm I was going to be I tried to open my mind to Brook. I could feel the barest hints of a connection, but that was all I needed. I stabilized it the best I could while avoiding another snap from the Dodrio.

 _"Brook, speed us up,"_ I told her as the connection broke. I had to hope that I got the message across, or we were going to eat some bark.

 _"One speed up, coming right up,"_

I grinned as I felt a new burst of speed. I wasted no time, cutting in front of the girl with the Dodrio and continuing until I was on her other side. Both the pokémon and rider were buffeted back as the psychic blast hit them both. She must not have appreciated us passing her, because she charged right after us. She couldn't run right behind us, but she could still come at us from an angle and nip at our heels.

Well, I wasn't in the mood for any heel nipping. I waited until she got too close, and then swerved so that Brook's psychic power would hit them full on. They fell back and I took the chance to charge forward. By the time the girl with the Dodrio recovered, she had fallen behind to the end of the front pack.

There were only four more teams in front of us now. The front two trainers were ridding on boards along with their pokémon, a Shroomish and a Nincada. They were really going at it too. The trainer with the Shroomish was shooting off bullet seeds, which the Nincada team either dodged or cut in midair. Every once in a while, the Nincada team would answer back with a gust of what looked like silver wind. On their heels was a young trainer riding an Absol of all things.

Brook's power wasn't going to do anything to that Absol, and the front two racers were going at it way too hard for me to cut in. In fact the longer I watched the pair, the more I worried that someone was going to die by the end of this race. Either way, I really only had a single option. Try to maintain my position in fourth until an opportunity appeared.

I glanced over at the Absol rider who apparently had the same idea as me. We both hung back as the battle in front of us raged on.

It was pretty impressive to look at, to be honest. It also looked pretty terrifying, so I felt like hanging back was the right…

 _"That bird racer is back,"_

I glanced back at Book's warning just in time to see the Dodrio snap all three of their beaks at me as the rider gave me a sneer, Looks like she wasn't too close happy to see me.

How was I going to get her off my trail this time? I doubted that the same trick would work twice.

Just as I was thinking about my problem, the top two racers started another fight. Could I maybe use them…?

I did my best to calm myself, I needed to make sure this got across.

 _"Brook, I signal, give everything,"_

 _"Understood. And let me just say that I am so proud on your progress in the psychic arts,"_ She messaged back, releasing a small knot of tension that had built up in my stomach for a second. With the plan set, I began to put in in motion.

I leaned from side to side, making sure that the Dodrio rider was chasing after me. After a few sways, I was pretty sure that I had her chasing at my heels. I looked forward and saw that the fight between the top two racers had calmed down a bit. We were also pretty close to the end of the track. If I was going to overtake them, it would have to be while they were preoccupied with their next fight.

I glanced at the Absol rider who met my gaze. They knew the same thing I did. We both got ready and watched the two riders as they started approaching each other, intent on starting another round of battle.

 _"Now!"_ I told Brook as she unleashed the strongest blast she could, rocketing us forward. Next to me, I could see the Absol kid rush forward, keeping pace with me. Behind me, I could hear the slapping sound of the Dodrio and their rider chasing after us.

The Absol rider and I slipped past the two top racers as they launched their attacks at each other. I could hear the sound of a small explosion behind me as the Dodrio rider probably took the brunt of the blast.

The sudden burst from The Absol rider and I rushing past them, as well as the explosion from the Dodrio rider, must have taken the two fighting racers by surprise. I didn't hear a single sound of battle as I rode away.

I could clearly see the finish line from here. A black and white checker mark banner stood on two poles. It was all down to me and the Absol rider. We glanced at each other one last time and came to a silent agreement.

No more tricks, no more moves, no more distractions. From here on it was a contest of speed and nothing else.

I rushed forward, pulling forward, only for the Absol rider to push just ahead of me. We went on and on, neck and neck, until we neared the end of the track.

I was ahead.

They were ahead.

I was ahead.

They were ahead.

I was ahead.

They were ahead.

I was…

We crossed the finish line, Brook and I just a split second faster than the Absol rider. I speed past the finish line into a large circular pit designed to help the racers slow down. I raced around the pit, slowing myself as the crowds cheered.

"And the winners are Nicholas Maple of Petalburg and Brook the Kirlia," I heard announced on the P.A. as Brook and I came to a stop. I climbed off the board and took in the cheers as Brook laughed and waved at the crowd.

 _"We did it Nikki!"_ She almost yelled into my mind. Even with the pain from mental scream, I couldn't get mad at her.

I would have said something to add to the victory if my tongue still wasn't stinging.

However, I quickly found that I didn't have to say a thing, as I was suddenly picked up by someone who had been right behind me.

"Nice work you two," I glanced down and saw that it had been my Dad that had picked me up. Funnily enough, him placing me on his shoulder had made us a two-man and pokémon tower with Brook at the top.

"Oh we are so proud of you both," My Mom said from below.

"Never took you for a racer little bro. Maybe Brook, but definitely not you," Ali added before laughing.

Was I wondering where the heck they had all come from? Heck yeah.

Was I not going to question it until after the celebrations were done? Also heck yeah.

* * *

It took a while to explain that Nikki bit his tongue, but once he did the rest of the conversation went so much smoother.

"I still can't believe that you managed to win," Chris said as Gale sat by his side.

"Well, I knew that he had it in him," Laura said with a grin.

After the race ended, we all gathered up in a small pokécenter at the base of the mountain. Most of the people who had come for the race had already left, so we had plenty of space for everyone.

Chris, Laura and Gale found us pretty quickly after the race ended and had found themselves invited along. All it had taken was a quick introduction on Nikki's part and the rest had accepted easily enough.

We had even found Linguini, who had even apparently finished almost dead last. Even in his defeat, he still managed to act like himself.

It was nice meeting all of Nikki's family again. His parents spent most of their time gushing over me and even his Sister couldn't resist patting my head a few times.

It felt nice, really nice.

Nice enough to make me feel dumb for thinking that they would tolerate Nikki kicking me out of the team. He was right, his family would have gone off on him.

We spent the rest of the day mostly hanging out enjoying our time. By this time tomorrow, Chris would be heading south along with Nikki's family. Sam and I would be heading north, towards our meet up with Brandon.


	15. Episode 15

**Episode 15: Motel Trouble**

* * *

"Too bad we aren't going to be passing by Meteor Falls," Laura said as the humans walked down the craggy road down the hills. Chris and Gale had gone down south towards Rustboro along with Nikki's family, bringing us back to the normal group.

"It would take too long," Nikki explained as I rode on his shoulders. "Meteor falls proper is behind us. We would have to head back and then come back,"

"Well, that's a letdown. I was looking forward to seeing the falls again," Laura groaned.

 _"We can always come back some other time,"_ I pointed out. _"Plus we have to make it to Fallarbor to meet with Brendan anyway,"_

Nikki translated for me and soon Laura gave a hesitant nod.

"Guess you have a point Brook," She said as I flashed her a smug grin.

"Why do you even want to go a second time?" Nikki asked. "It's not like there's much to see,"

"I rushed past it the first time around. After I made it to the other side, one of the people coming in from the other side told me that I had missed out on seeing wild Bagon," She looked back down at Nikki and gave him a questioning look. "By the way, do you have any idea about what it was that Brendan wanted to talk to you about?"

"Not a clue," Nikki admitted. "All he said was that he really needed to see me in person in Fallarbor before a certain date,"

"That's weird, I wonder what it could be," Laura added as the ground around us started to soften up and turn into dirt. It looked like we were almost out of the hills and back onto steady ground.

 _"Don't mind me,"_ I said as I got up from my spot on Nikki's shoulders and jumped down onto the ground.

"You alright?" Nikki asked.

 _"I'm fine, just figured that I would get a bit of walking in,"_ I told him as a pokéball on his chest opened and Khesen emerged. I gave the Breloom a quick wave. "Hey there big mushroom buddy, what's brings you out today?"

"Khesen, everything alright?" Nikki said before Khesen looked down at me.

"Felt like stretching my legs out a bit while the sun was still out," He explained before leaving me to translate to Nikki.

Our trainer gave Khesen a quick nod after I explained things.

"I don't see why not," Nikki said before turning back towards the path, Khesen and I following behind him.

We walked in relative silence for a while after that, the ground beneath us getting even softer as we started seeing more grass.

"So my project is coming along pretty well," I told Khesen who gave a vague hum. "I think that I have it almost figured out,"

"You deserve it, Vimilky and I have helped you enough to know how much work you've put into it," He explained while walking forward.

"Oh, thank you," I said with a mild blush hand rubbing the back of my head.

We fell back into a comfortable silence after that, not a word being said by anyone until we passed by a small tree that caught Khesen's eye.

"Brook," Khesen finally said breaking the silence after we passed it.

"Yeah?" I said as I glanced up at him before keeping my eyes on the path in front of me. The ground was getting easy to travel on, but I still needed to keep an eye out for the stray rock.

"I wanted to thank you," He explained as I tried to figure out that he was talking about.

"About what?" I asked, nothing in particular coming to mind.

He paused before stretching his arms out just enough that he could hold them in front of his face for a close look. "For bringing me with you on this journey," He explained.

"Oh, right. I was the one who did that," I said as I remembered that day and the headache that had come with it.

"If I had never come with you, I don't think I would have ever have made it this far," He explained as he opened and closed his little red pincers. "I probably would have still been a little Shroomish out in the middle of nowhere,"

"Wouldn't you be a little Shroomish working for one of those dumb neo-teams?" I pointed out as Khesen winced.

"Oh, right. I almost forgot about that part," He said as he placed his arms down. "Or rather, I was trying to forget,"

"I wouldn't blame you. Those guys were idiots," I said as a laugh forced its way out of my mouth.

"Like I said, I'm thankful you managed to convince me into that pokéball," He said with a small grin.

"Yeah, you're right," I told him as we walked for a bit longer. I looked up at Khesen suddenly and said the first thing on my mind. "Have you noticed that Nikki's never caught a pokémon?"

"Didn't he catch you?" He asked me with a raised eyebrow.

"Not really. I would say that it was more like we came to an agreement and then we started traveling together," I explained, slimming over most of what happened.

"So you agreed to go with him without a fight, you convinced me to come with you guys, and Vimilky smuggled herself onto the team," He summed up. "So he's never actually caught a pokémon then,"

"You know how humans tend to keep pokémon in teams of six?" I asked Khesen who gave me a quick nod. "I wonder how many more teammates we'll get before he actually catches one of them,"

"The fifth," Khesen said without even thinking about it. "Our fifth will be his first catch,"

"Wow, you think that the next one will be a non-catch too?" I asked as I leaned forward and started giggling.

"What are you two talking about back there?" The trainer in question asked as he glanced back at us.

 _"Oh nothing,"_ I messaged him as I smiled at Khesen who responded back with his own small smile.

I wondered what Milky was up to when both of the humans of the group came to a stop. I tiled my head to the side before Khesen and I ran up to see what was going on.

"Oh wow," I let out as I looked at the gigantic, pristine lake in front of us. The water shone in the sun, reflecting the light and making the whole thing glow. I took a moment to take it all in… and then immediately remembered that we would have to somehow cross this thing.

 _"So Nikki my wonderful trainer… how we getting to the other side of this place?"_ I asked, hoping that the answer wasn't what it had been last time we had found a lake like this. I was in no mood to walk around this one.

"We're taking a boat," He said as he pointed off to the side towards a small dock that I hadn't noticed before. Around the dock where a small collection of buildings. In fact from here it looked like they didn't even have a pokécenter.

"A small boat leaves from that dock and crosses the lake once a day," Nikki explained further as I noticed something move off in the distance. "We have to hurry though, the boat only leaves once a day and we don't want to…,"

 _"Is it that one?"_ I said both mentally and aloud as I pointed out a small ship leaving from the port and quickly making its way across the water.

"Yeah, that the one," Nikki said carefully before letting out a sigh. "That's the one we needed,"

"It's going pretty fast, why does it only leave once a day?" Laura brought up. As I watched the ship speed up across the not-that-large lake, I had the same question. "When I took it, I was too excited to really question it,"

"Low demand from what I've heard," Nikki explained in a tired tone as he watched the boat speed away. "Not enough people cross the lake when it's easier to just take a ship across the sea form Fallarbor and Rustboro. That's why we're going to have wait until tomorrow to get to that town," He pointed towards the other side of the lake where I could see some vague outlines in the distance that might have been buildings.

I guess that was Fallarbor town.

"So what's the plan?" Laura asked as Nikki groaned and searched his pocket for his wallet.

"You up for a night in a hotel?" He said before jutting his thumb towards the small outpost around the port.

* * *

We soon came to a bit of an issue on the hotel front.

"I can believe that it's come to this," Laura said from right next to me as we stood in the center of the street and looked at the two buildings which were across said street from each other.

The first was a tiny looking motel that looked more like a place for catching bug type pokémon then a place to sleep for the night. It was a long building with a single floor. The roof was covered in cheap-looking tile that had seen better days and the walls were painted in an ugly beige that seemed to be peeling off anyway. Right outside the lot was a big sign that screamed 'cheap rooms' like it was the only positive part of staying here.

Option two was a much taller building with a fresh coat of paint. I could hear people playing in a pool from all the way over here, and all-in-all, it looked like a nice place to stay the night. The only issue was the big guy at the door that had let us know that they were full.

"So what do we do?" Laura asked. I looked at both of them again and find myself tongue-tied.

"Well, I guess we don't have much of a choice," I finally admitted. "What do you think Brook?" I glanced downwards expecting to see the Kirlia next to me. Khesen had gone back into his pokéball once we had reached the buildings, but Brook has decided to stay by my side.

Or at least she had since she wasn't there anymore. Instead, she was standing at the edge of the lake looking over the water. "Brook?" I asked as I got closer.

 _"Do you think we could just swim across?"_ She asked without a hint of humor to her question. _"I think we would make it,"_

"I don't think that's such a good idea Brook," I told her as she turned back towards the water.

 _"I don't want to go into that place,"_ She explained as she glanced back at the hotel. _"But I don't want to just hide in my pokéball and leave you alone in their either,"_

"Why, what's wrong with the place… besides the obvious?" I asked as I looked back at the motel.

 _"Well, I don't really bring it up too often, but I've been practicing a bit with my empathy sense,"_ She explained as my eyes widened. _"I have to force myself to remember to use it, and I can't use it for very long… but I used it while we were standing in front of the motel,"_

"What did you see?" I asked as I started feeling a pit in my stomach.

 _"I'm… not really sure. I tried to use my empathy sense cause the place looked 'weird' and I felt… bad,"_ She said like she had trouble coming to that last word. _"I think that someone with more practice with their empathy sense would be able to tell you more, but that was all I was able to get off the place,"_

"Because we don't have enough trouble," I muttered as I felt juts how light my pocket felt. "And you have no idea what this bad feeling could be, right?"

Brook just gave me a head shake.

"Well it's either this or we try to find a place to camp outside for the night," I explained as the latter started sounding better and better. But as much as I wanted to argue with myself, I had to admit that even the worst motel would be better than camping out.

"How about this," I finally came to decision. "We stay in the motel, but we keep an eye open for anything… weird,"

Brook put her hand to her chin and tilted her head to the side a bit as she thought it over.

 _"I guess that can work,"_ She finally said. _"But how exactly would that work? Would we sleep in shifts or something?"_

"We'll figure it out if Laura agrees with us," I told her as we started walking back to the girl in question was still waiting for us in front of the motel.

"So what was that all about," She demanded as I let out a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of my head.

"Brook got a bad feeling off this place," I explained as Brook gave Laura a quick nod before glaring at the building in question.

"Well that's worrying," She said as gave the motel an apprehensive look.

"Yeah, I had the idea of keeping an eye open, just in case,' I explained. "We're only going to stay for a night anyway. Once we make it across, we'll be able to stay the night in a proper pokécenter,"

"I guess you have a point… But maybe we should at least check the place out before we make a decision," She pointed out before walking towards the door to the main office.

The inside of the motel was just as sketchy as the outside. The walls were made of old wood that looked slightly moldy in certain areas. The building itself creaked a bit from time to time, and worst of all, there was a slight layer of dust on just… everything.

The room itself was pretty simple looking. The floor had a checkerboard pattern with a single rub near the entrance. Off to the side, there was a single table with some chairs around it. Next to that was a water dispenser that had run out of water. To the other side of the room was a tall desk with no chair as well as a simple PC.

At the very back of the room, across from the door, was the main desk where two people were speaking.

"For the last time, there's nothing wrong with my PC," The red-faced older man behind the desk argued. He was wearing a cheap-looking purple and brown pinstripe suit. He had an ugly mustache that looked like a small fuzzy pokémon had crawled above his lips and had decided to just stay there. Atop his head was a full set of brown hair with streaks of lighter brown that seemed… off for some reason.

"I'm telling you that I only need to check for a few seconds," The woman he was arguing with muttered angrily as she placed her hands on the desk with a loud smack.

She looked a bit out of place in the cheap building. She wore a green dress with black leggings underneath. She wore a black bandanna over her head and her red hair, most of which was in a pair of pigtails. On her currently, irritated face were a pair of simple glasses that looked ready to fall off.

"And I'm telling you that the PC is for customers only," The man behind the counter argued back. "Besides, I just had some people come in and check out a few days ago. They said it was fine," His eyes narrowed as he noticed us. He turned back to the lady who he pointed at. "Now get out, I have customers,"

"This isn't over," She said before she got up and adjusted her glasses. She turned around and started walking towards us. She glanced over at us as she passed. "Don't use the PC storage system here," She muttered before leaving out the door we had come in through.

"Trainers!" The purple suited man said with a toothy grin as he got out of his chair and held his arms out at us. "It's always good to see travelers passing through old Rason's motel,"

"Um… hello?" I told the man as both Laura and Brook slightly shifted around so that I was in front of both of them. I took a second glance at Brook whose eye twitched a bit before she took a deep, calming breath. "How much for a room with two beds for the night?"

"For two trainers in the middle of a pretty dead season? Low rates my young friends, low rated indeed," He said before giving us some numbers that would have sounded amazing if the rest of the motel didn't look like… what it looked like.

"I think that sounds pretty good," I said before turning to Laura. "What do you think?"

"Sounds fine," She said before a bit of nervous laughter escaped her lips. "But, um… Mr. Rason, what was that lady from before talking about?"

The man's face immediately soured, his faces scrunching up like he had just bit into an Aspear berry that someone had told him tasted like a Pecha berry.

"Oh don't you worry about that," He barked. "Crazy girl thinks just because she knows her way around a computer she has the right to just snoop around other people's systems. Don't you worry about a thing my young friends, my PC is safe and secure for all your pokémon swapping needs,"

"Well I only have three pokémon on me so that won't be much of an issue for me anyway, but thanks," I explained to the man as I glanced at the dusty old machine in the corner of the room. "So about that room,"

* * *

 _"I don't like that human,"_ I sent Nikki as we sat at a bench as far from the motel as we could get. Well, Laura was sitting. I was standing on the bench to make up for my short height and Nikki was standing in front of us. _"He gives me the creeps and if he had gotten even a bit closer, I would have blasted that fake hair off his head,"_

"Yes, all true," Nikki said with a solemn nod. "But is he the source of the bad feeling you got when you used your empathy sense?"

I let out a sigh and felt the sweet temptation to lie. As fun as that might have been, I had to admit that it would cause way too many problems if I did that now.

 _"I don't know,"_ I admitted while sighing.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Laura asked after Nikki translated for me.

 _"I mean that when I looked around with my empathy sense, I felt that bad feeling everywhere,"_ I explained as I shivered a bit at the memory of what I felt. _"It was kind of like… a smell so bad that it covers everything so you can't tell where it's coming from,"_

"Well there's a mental picture that I didn't need," Laura said with a shiver. "So it could be him, or it could not be him?"

 _"That's pretty much it,"_ I confirmed for her before we all turned towards the motel. _"Anyone else super suspicious about that PC though?"_

"Same," Nikki added as he placed his hand to his brow and scrunched his eyes closed. "Why did that lady in the green dress look so familiar?"

"You think?" Laura asked. "She didn't look too special to me,"

 _I don't think I've ever seen her either,"_ I added. _"So either you were imagining it or you're the only one who knows who she is,"_

"True, But I'm sure that I know who she is," He said before humming. He opened his eyes again and muttered to himself. "But besides that… I wonder what it was about that PC that worried…"

Nikki's muttering cut off as his eyes went wide.

"The PC, that's it," He said before suddenly punching his palm. He turned towards us with a wild grin. "I know who she is,"

 _"Well, go on,"_ I told him as he kept smiling at us while digging into his Pokénav. He turned the screen on and went through it for a while before finding what he was looking for.

"It's her," He said as he turned the pokénav towards us at such a height that both Laura and I could see the screen.

 _"Nikki, as smart as you probably feel, I have to point out that I still can't read,"_ I pointed out as I saw a picture of the lady in green surrounded by useless text.

"Oh right," He said wincing. "We should really get around to doing something about that…" He trailed off a bit.

 _"But not right now right?"_ I asked for clarification.

"No not right now," He said maybe a bit… too quickly. "No this is Lanette. She's one of the people who helped set up the pokémon storage system here in Hoenn," He explained before pausing. "Well I say 'helped' but from what I read, most of the work was either her or Bill himself,"

"Oh she worked with Bill?" Laura said as her eyes widened in surprise. "Now that's one famous person that even I know about,"

"What do you mean?" Nikki asked as I looked at the photo again. I might have been new to the human world, but I understood the pokémon transfer system. Warmth did a pretty good job of describing it to me in case it ever came up.

"Well, I'm not that good with famous people, like at all," Laura explained as my eyes narrowed at the photo. If this was the lady who helped create that system, and she was saying that there was something wrong with it… "I can't even tell you who the Kanto champion right now,"

"Isn't the current Kanto champion…?"

 _"Do you guys think we should go and talk to her?"_ I cut Nikki off while pointing at the screen. _"Maybe finding out what her problem with the motel's PC is will be a clue,"_

"Oh, right," Nikki said sheepishly as he put is pokénav away. "I think she lives close by too. Why don't we stop by for a visit?"

"What are you two talking about?" Laura asked before Nikki translated what I had said to her. By the time he was done, Laura was nodding along and ready to head out as well.

I jumped off the bench and looked up at Nikki. _"So where does this… you said Lanette right?"_ I waited for Nikki to give me a quick nod to make sure that I had gotten the lady's name right. _"Where does she live?"_

"I'm pretty sure she lives just a few minutes southeast in a lone building over by the cliffs," He explained as he pointed over in that general direction.

 _"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go,"_ I declared as I started walking in that direction, Nikki and Laura following after me.

The trip to Lanette's house was easy enough. Once we made it out of the more urban area, we quickly found ourselves back on rocky terrain. One thing I noticed, was that the further east we got, the higher the cliffs got. Once we started seeing some really nasty drops, I suddenly became thankful that we had taken the long way around through the flatter parts of the hills.

As we got closer, the forest also started thickening up. The loose collections of tiny trees and shrubs that we had seen on our trip through the hills quickly morphed into a full forest filled with thick trunked trees that were hard to see past.

Before we knew it, we were in the middle of dense woodland, the sounds of nature and wild pokémon coming from all around us.

"Hey I think I see it up ahead," Laura said as she jumped up a bit and squinted her eyes through the crowded woods. I followed her eyes and squinted the best I could. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see what Laura was seeing.

This called for drastic measures.

I searched around for a tree with low enough branches for this to work. Once I had spotted one, I angled my arms downwards and made some quick calculations. I reached deep inside me for the power I needed.

 _"Here I go,"_ I announced to Nikki before I let loose a boost that sent me flying into the air. I smirked even as Nikki and Laura both jumped. I cut it early on, leaving me freely sailing through the air. I took the best of what Gale taught me and angled myself so that my feet would hit the branch.

I winced in pain as my feet landed right on the rough wood, and then smiled as I put my hands on my hips and let out a triumphant laugh.

 _"I did it,"_ I announced both mentally and aloud before letting out another laugh.

"Yeah you did it alright," I heard Nikki say from below as I scanned the area around us for Lanette's place. My eyes quickly locked onto a small wooden building covered in solar panels and covered in wires and a gigantic dish on the top.

Based on my astute and genius observations, I came to the conclusion that this was Lanette's house.

It also helped that the lady in question was bursting out of the house and looking around franticly. She stopped upon spotting us, giving us a confused look as I waved at her from my branch.

* * *

"And that' why we're here," I explained to Lanette who still looked slightly annoyed. Well, she looked annoyed at Brook, which I guess was an improvement from when she was annoyed at all of us. "And let me say again that I am so sorry about Brook letting out a psychic blast while you were working,"

The Kirlia in question was currently sitting to my right with a cup of hot tea in her hand and a satisfied smile on her face. We had gotten lucky that Lanette was nice enough to let us into her home and sit on her couch to hear us out instead of just slamming the door in our faces.

The extremely patient women in question sighed as she rubbed her temples.

"I guess I do owe you all a bit of explanation after being so cryptic earlier," she said before glancing over to a computer on the other side of a sea of cluttered metal, stacked books, and machine parts. "A few days ago I started seeing some suspicious activity in the network. Now a little bit of weirdness now and again is always there. Most of it is pokédex modders using the network in new ways," She explained as I tried not to think about the modded pokédex in my pocket.

"There's pokédex modders?" I coughed in what I hoped was a good acting performance. Based on the way that both Laura and Brook were looking away from me, I guess it wasn't.

"Yeah, they're not that common, and most of what they do is pretty harmless," She explained like there was nothing off about our conversation. Maybe I was a better actor then I thought. "Not only that but they know that they walk a fine line. Any of them that start messing with the important stuff and the rest will turn on them,"

"So modded pokédexes are okay then?" Laura asked as she glanced over at me.

"As long as you don't use them for anything illegal, I don't really see any problem with them," Lanette said before taking a quick sip of her own tea. "Of course you would have to find a pokédex modder in the first place, and those guys like to stay underground,"

"I see," I said carefully before attempting to change the topic. "So you were talking about some weird activity right?"

"Oh right," Lanette said as though she had almost forgotten the reason we were all talking in the first place. "Well like I said, a few days ago I spotted something… weird. A whole bunch of files circulating around the network. I took a closer look and figured out that all of the files had software on them that reordered a list of every account number that it came in contact with. After that, it would send that list back to a particular account,"

"So who does the account belong too?" I asked as I tried to figure out what someone could do with a list of account numbers and nothing else.

"That's just the thing. The account number is of a trainer who started their journey three years ago, got two badges, and then retired," She explained as she swirled the tea in her cup around. "He used the account for the few weeks that he was traveling then it was never used again. Until that is, someone logged into it from the motel PC,"

"Let me guess," Laura said while looking like she was holding back a groan. "When you called the guy, he said he didn't use it?"

"He doesn't even live in Hoenn anymore," Lanette shook her head sadly. "And since he has no access to any pokémon able to teleport him that far, I don't think it was him,"

"I can see why you wanted to check the PC," I added as Brook nodded along with me.

 _"I knew that Motel guy looked sketchy,"_ Brook messaged me as she crossed her legs glared her eyes. _"So know the question is what do we do about it?"_

"That is a good question," I told her as she smirked at me and punched her hand into her palm.

 _"I say we stake out the PC at night and wait for someone to use it,"_ Brook grinned as I let out a sigh.

"Who is he talking too?" I heard Lanette ask Laura. The system administrator was watching me with a worried look.

"Oh, Brook can talk to him psychically," Laura quickly explained. "You get used to it after a while,"

"And the Kirlia in question was asking what we're going to do about the problem in the system, and then suggested a stakeout for whoever used the PC,"

"Considering the fact that the guy wouldn't even let me touch the PC, I don't think that will…" Lanette trailed off before holding up her finger at us and putting her tea down on the table in front of us. I watched her get up and then almost dance through the field of clutter towards a PC.

"While we can't do a physical stakeout for obvious reasons, there's no reason we can't do a virtual one," She explained as she typed away. "I can set it up so that the system will alert me if anyone logs onto that account from that PC,"

"And then what?" Laura asked as Lanette's fingers stopped mid-type. The system administrator slowly turned towards Laura, the light hitting her glasses in such a way that we couldn't see her eyes.

"I have no idea," She confessed. "Honestly, I already alerted the Police. Even if the person who did this had no bad intentions, both this kind of software and using someone else's account like this is already pretty illegal,"

 _"But you said that you found out about this three days ago?"_ Brook asked which I helpfully translated for her.

"Well it's illegal, but it's not 'major crime, go to jail' kind of illegal," She explained as she scratched the side of her face. "More of 'Get caught, pay a fine, and get a warning' kind of crime. It's such a low priority that Fallarbor police already told me that they wouldn't be able to send anyone until the contest they're holding there tomorrow ends,"

"You guys take contests really seriously in this region," Laura commented as she gave me a pointed look.

"What can I say, they're a regional pastime," I said with a nervous laugh.

I mean, I wasn't so naïve that I was unaware that the popular view of contests outside of Hoenn was 'that weird thing that people from Hoenn like'. And while I liked watching contests as much as any other native-born child of the tropical region… even I had to admit that it was a little weird.

Not that I would ever let that slip through my lips. I liked not being disowned by my family, thank you very much.

"Yeah, a regional pastime that's keeping the police too busy to come help with this," Lanette sighed. "They said to contact them again if thing escalates to a major crime. The problem with that is that my main goal is avoiding the damage that said escalation would entail,"

 _"Well then,"_ Brook said as she leaned back and stretched her hands out over the couch. _"Sounds like she could use some help. She already has a way to warn her if someone accesses the account right?"_

She waited for me to translate and to get a full set of nods from the three of us.

 _"Well, why don't we just do the stakeout anyway?"_ She proposed. _"We'll wait in our room and if the account activates, she can call you on your pokénav,"_

"That… sounds like a plan," Lanette said, noticeable avoiding using any qualifier before the word plan. "I mean, I guess I can give you guys my number and call you if anything comes up if you don't mind,"

 _"We were planning on doing something like this because the place felt off to my empathy sense remember?"_ Brook pointed out which I then translated.

"That's right. We were talking about that, weren't we?" Laura added. "Might as well lend Lanette a hand while we're at it, right?"

I winced at the apparent plan coming together. I glanced between Brook, Laura, and Lanette before letting out a sigh. I placed my hand on my hip and gave in to where this was going.

"Looks like we're doing a stakeout,"

* * *

"I hate this so much," I said to myself as I sat on the weirdly uncomfortable bed that the motel had provided. It was weirdly spongy in places and then too hard in other places, and the places in-between were almost nonexistent. I had even checked the other bed in case it had been any different, and it hadn't been.

It was enough to make me feel bad for the two humans that would have to sleep on the things.

Said humans in question were currently out shopping at a nearby convenience store for some food. The motel hadn't offered us anything, and we were a bit low on supplies so it had been the best plan. Of course, I had offered to stay behind and keep an eye out on everyone's stuff.

It had been my idea, staying behind. I wanted to go and grab a few treats for myself, but I didn't trust the motel owner one bit. Was he the kind of person to rob his costumers? I had no clue but that was a risk I wasn't going to take.

I glanced at the two backpacks laid down on the other bed and smiled smugly. No one was going to be taking any of our stuff. Or at least, no one would be taking Nikki's and Laura's stuff. I didn't really have stuff besides my bandana and hair ties.

"I should get more stuff," I pondered as I rocked back and forth with a small frown on my face. "But what kind of stuff?"

I thought it over for a while, but by the time Nikki and Laura got back from the store, I had nothing.

"So I think our best bet is to sleep in shifts," Nikki said as the three of us sat around in a somewhat circle, the food heating up off to the side. "That way all three of us get some sleep in and we'll still be ready to react if something happens,"

"Sounds like a plan," Laura said as we heard a ding from the old microwave that came with the room.

We ate quickly before hunkering down for the night. Nikki and I practiced some more with his psychic abilities while Laura texted someone on her own pokénav.

"Are you sure you'll be able to handle this?" Nikki asked me as Laura laid down and fell asleep right away. After a quick discussion, I had gotten the first shift of the night.

 _"Don't you worry about a thing,"_ I assured Nikki as I laid my hand down on his pokénav. He had set it down on the table that I had been sitting on, right next to me. _"I'll let you know if Lanette calls or anything weird happens,"_

"Okay then, Are you sure that you remember what time to wake me up to switch?" I rolled my eyes a bit at his nagging despite knowing that it was coming from a good place.

 _"Of course I do,"_ I messaged him before telling him the exact time that I was supposed to wake him up. He wished me luck one last time before turning off the lights and drifting to sleep.

I felt my skin crawl as I glanced around the now dark room. This place was creepy enough without the extra level of creepiness the dark provided. Well, it was something that I was just going to have to power through. I had my mission, and there was nothing that was going to be able to distract me from it.

An hour later, I sat defeated and bored out of my mind. I thought stakeouts were supposed to be this exciting thing where the bad guys showed up right away? Why hadn't they come yet?

"I need to think of something to do to keep from losing my mind," I muttered to myself as I looked around the room. I searched for something, anything, that could distract me from how bored I was.

I let out a sigh as I failed to find anything in the room before I glanced down at the pokénav. Nikki had explained to me how it worked, for the most part. Not being able to read would normally complicate things a bit, but not for what I wanted to do.

I pressed the main screen and watched as it filled the room with a soft blue light that I quickly angled away from Nikki and Laura. Last thing I wanted to wake them up too early. I waited a bit before continuing, making sure that I hadn't accidentally woke them up.

When they failed to even turn in their sleep, a miracle considering how uncomfortable those beds were, I kept going. I pressed a button on the screen that looked like a folded up paper and watched as it grew and unfolded out into a map.

It was still so strange to see the world laid out like this, a flat image with everything laid out just like that.

I shook my head, trying to get my head back on track as my eyes went up to the upper left corner of the map.

I found the little marker that represented our location easily enough. It was right there, below the large blue blob that I figured was the lake. On the other side was another dot that I guessed was Fallarbor Town.

I wondered for a moment just what it was that Branden wanted to talk to Nikki about. Hopefully, it was good news. Who knew, maybe I would even get to talk to Warmth again. That would be nice.

I wondered for a moment if she had heard about what had happened with the battle with Flannery and its aftermath. I felt my cheeks flush a bit as I imagined her standing over me with a look of disappointment on her face.

Well, I would just have to hope that she hadn't heard about that.

I looked back at the map and followed the route that we were apparently going to take after leaving Fallarbor. From what Nikki had told me, we were leaving from Fallarbor eastwards, then going down south in order to go around the mountain, and then back to Lavaridge.

From there, I was pretty sure that Nikki was planning to cross the desert into the eastern half of Hoenn. There was apparently a small pass through the mountains that walled of the eastern border of the desert that we were going to pass through.

Maybe the stuff I should get should include sunblock and a hat? It would come in handy considered how hot the desert was supposed to be.

From there was Fortree city and from there… well, I wasn't actually sure. Nikki had never mentioned where he had been planning on going after that. I wasn't even sure if he knew where he was going after that. We would have four badges at that point, maybe it would be a good time to head back to Petalburg?

My musing was interrupted when the map in front of me faded away, only to be replaced with an image of Lanette with tow buttons below her, one green and the other red. I pressed the green button without wasting a second.

"Hello, anyone there?" She asked as she appeared on the screen. The light in her room was lit up, and I could see her stuff all over the place behind her. I picked up the pokénav and angled it so that she could see me better. She blinked at the screen as I became visible. "Oh it's the Kirlia,"

"Yeah, it's me," I chirped at her knowing full well that she couldn't understand me.

"Of course it goes down when the pokémon is on watch," She muttered as I tried to smile despite my annoyance. I was just as capable as the two humans I was traveling with, thank you very much. "Just go wake up Nicholas and Laura,"

I grumbled over as I jumped onto Nikki's bed and started shaking his shoulder. He woke surprisingly quickly. He must not have been as immune to the bad bed as I thought he was. He let out a yawn as he slowly got to his knees and started rubbing his eyes.

"Brook, why did you…" He started to ask before freezing in place. I was about to poke him to see if he was alright when his eyes flew open. "Brook, what's going on?"

"What's going on is that its ShowTime," Lanette explained from the pokénav as Nikki got up from the bed and rushed over to wake Laura up. "You two need to get up and handle this,"

"What's going on?" Laura asked as she got up, her eyes locking onto Lanette.

"Our little hacker just accessed the account and they're escalating," She explained in a hurried tone. "You have to get to that PC right now!"

"What's going on?" Nikki asked as he and Laura both put on their shoes as I jumped onto Nikki's shoulder, ready to ride along.

"They're uploading a program onto the network that does a lot worse than just give the user a bunch of account names," Lanette explained as Nikki grabbed the pokénav and ran out the door, me on his shoulder and Laura on his heels. "This new program is designed to intercept any pokémon that get moved around by the system. They've turned that PC into a pokémon stealing machine!"

* * *

I ran across the lot as quickly as my legs could move me. If Lanette was right about this program, and she had no reason to be, then this was huge. Tonight was the night before a contest, who knew how many people were switching around their team in preparation for it. If even a few of them got stolen…

I knew as much about the black market of Illegal pokémon selling as the next guy, and even I knew that contest pokémon would be worth a lot of money.

There was no way that I was about to let that happen. Lanette said that I needed to get to that PC and shut it down, and that's what I was going to do.

I grit my teeth and charged forward at the door to the lobby.

"Get ready," I told brook as I angled myself so that I would hit the door with the shoulder she wasn't ridding on.

I slammed into the door, wincing in pain as my shoulder opened the thing.

I stumbled into the room as Brook jumped off my shoulder, somersaulted in the air and landed on the floor, her arms stretched out and aimed towards the PC.

 _"Freeze dirtbags,"_ She said mentally in a strangely echoey voice as the figures standing around the PC looked around the room.

"We didn't do anything!" They both said as they threw their hands into the air.

They were strangely short. I had been expecting someone a bit older to be doing this kind of crime. And why did their outline look a little familiar?

"Nikki, did you find them," I head Laura ask as the lights came on in the room.

Standing in front of us was a pair of young boys wearing…

Team Neo-Aqua uniforms, because of course, they were.

"It's you guys?" I ask as the pair glanced at me and then at each other.

"Hey wait, what are we doing?" One asked before turning to the other.

"Yeah what are we doing, this guy's just some punk kid like us," The other one said.

"We can totally take them," The first one said as he put his arms down and started reaching for his belt.

A blast of psychic energy fired off from Brook's hand before I could get a word out. The energy rushed right past the Neo-aqua grunt's head before it slammed into the wall behind him. We all slowly turned towards Brook who was still holding her arms out and had a dangerous looking grin on her face.

 _"I said to freeze,"_ Brook messaged in the echoey voice as the two Neo-Aqua's starred at her.

"Did that pokémon just talk?" One asked the other.

"I think it did," The other replied as Brook clicked her tongue at them in annoyance.

 _"Considering what you just tried to do, a talking pokémon should be the least of your worries,"_ She said, sounding noticeable tougher than normal.

"When did you learn how to mentally speak with other humans?" I asked her as she gave me a sheepish smile.

 _"Oh I've been practicing here and there,"_ She explained, her voice back to normal. _"The trick is that instead of trying to speak to one specific person, it's more like I'm sending out a general broadcast to everyone close to me,"_

"So you still can't talk personally to anyone but me then," I said as I kept my eyes on the two Neo-Aqua guys.

 _"Yeah it also doesn't help that I can't control who hears the message,"_ She explained. _"If they're in range, they hear it, no matter what,"_

"What do you kids think you're doing?" I heard someone yell from behind me. At the door was the suited man from before who was glaring at us.

"Mr. Ransom!" Both of the Neo-Aqua guys said at once.

"I told you two that you could use my PC for your plan if you didn't get caught," He barked at them. "And what do you all this?"

"It wasn't our fault," the first one said.

"Yeah, I don't know how they caught us," The other one argued.

"Wait, you knew what they were up to?" Laura demanded from the motel guy as she reached for a pokéball. "You're just as much of a criminal as those two,"

"Watch your mouth brat," He yelled as his hair started shifting around. "I knew you two were trouble when you walked in. Go Zigzagoon!"

We all kind of watched as the brown mop on the man's head jumped forward, revealing it to be a small pokémon.

"Go, Doduo," She called out, not even batting at an eye to the strange development. There was a flash of light in the room as the large bird appeared in the room and starred down the Zigzagoon.

This was then followed up by two more flashes coming from behind me. Brook and I turned back around towards the two Neo-Aqua grunts who each had a pokémon in front of them.

 _"Ugh, I got distracted,"_ Brook old me while growling as she starred down the two pokémon in front of her.

To her left was a leafy-green pokémon with bright red lips and a flat disc on their head that I knew as a Lombre. To her right was a white monkey that I knew far too well to call it anything but a Vigoroth.

 _"This the best you got?"_ Brook demanded as she looked ready to fight both pokémon at once. As though I was really going to let her get away with that. I grabbed a second pokéball from my chest and tossed it forward. There was one last flash of light in the dark room and there was a large mushroom pokémon standing next to Brook.

"Brook, Khesen, get ready!"

* * *

"I got green, you get white," I told Khesen as he put up his claws while I aimed both arms at the green thing.

"Agreed," Khesen said as Nikki narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists.

"Brook, hit Lombre with a confusion. Khesen, hit Vigoroth with a mach punch,"

Khesen rushed forward as I took aim and opened fire with a confusion.

"Lombre, use Bubble beam,"

"Vigoroth, use fury swipes,"

The Lombre opened its mouth and let loose a blast of bubbles which my confusion cut through without issue. The Lombre freaked as the blast hit him right in the face, sending him flying back into the wall.

Khesen's fist reached the Vigoroth before he even had the chance to put up its claws. One good punch into its stomach was enough to send it flying back into the wall next to the Lombre.

"What are you two doing?" The first Neo-idiot demanded.

"Get back up and show them not to mess with us!" The other one demanded.

"You know, staying down is a completely valid option," I pointed out as the two pokémon struggled to their feet.

"Shut up, we know what we're doing," The Lombre wrongly stated.

"Yeah, you may have gotten in a pair of lucky hits, but form here the fight…"

"Brook, use confusion," Nikki, said, cutting of the Vigoroth. I raised my arms up at blasted them both through the wall and into the room behind it.

The two Neo idiots watched the hole in the wall and let out a gulp. I aimed my arms back at them when I heard the sound of two sets of feet running around in the next room.

I glanced over to the door and watched as it swung open, revealing the Lombre and Vigoroth as they both tried to go through the door at once.

Did I even need to say that they got stuck in the door frame?

"This is just sad," I said as I raised my arm up and blasted them again.

They didn't get up this time. I pointed my arms back at the two Neo idiots while Khesen walked up to them and placed a claw on both of their shoulders.

"We surrender!" They both said as I tried to keep from sniggering.

"Nice work you two," Nikki said as he walked up to the PC and ejected the disc inside before shutting the thing down.

"I feel somewhat unneeded," Khesen muttered as he glanced at his fists and then to the holes in the wall. "This wasn't much of a fight,"

"Yeah, what's up with that?" I asked aloud as I heard a crashing sound coming from right behind us.

I turned around and why was there a brown blur coming right at my face?

"Ahh!" I yelped as I let loose the fastest confusion I could make. It exploded into the blur almost as soon as I made it, sending it straight into the ceiling.

We all watched as the poor Zigzagoon dropped to the floor, knocked out.

"Looks like you're done," Laura said as Doduo glared at the motel guy. "You want to give up now?"

The motel guy growled as Laura directed him to where the two Neo-Brats were sitting.

"I'm going to kill you two once we get out of this," He muttered to the two kids who both gulped.

 _"You mean if you get out of this,"_ I added, knowing that it would just make him madder.

With how red his face was getting, I would say that I managed to pull that off with no trouble.

* * *

"Thank you all for the help," Lanette told us as we all stood in the courtyard of the motel. The motel guy was getting placed into a police car, yelling about 'How does dumb kids had ruined everything'.

Said dumb kids were sitting in the back of another police car. With the way the motel guy was yelling at the Neo Aqua kids, they wanted to take them to separate locations. They were apparently going to take the two to a facility in Rustboro.

The two were more than happy to get away from Lanette, as the woman in question had gone off on them when she had first arrived. The second she had shown up, she had marched up to the two and had demanded to know how they thought they could get away with it.

Apparently 'but we were in incognito mode' was not a satisfactory answer considering that Laura and I had to physically keep her from slapping the pair to death.

"If you two hadn't stepped in, the kind of damage would have catastrophic," Lanette explained as she glared at the police who tried not to look at her.

Apparently hearing that someone was trying to steal the contest pokémon had been enough for them to get in gear. They apparently even had their own private police boat.

Lucky them.

"Hey don't worry about that," I told her as I glanced over to the rest of the motel rooms. "I wonder why no one else has come out of their rooms with all this noise,"

"Were we the only people staying in this entire motel?" Laura asked as glanced over to one of the doors, half excepting it to open up.

It didn't of course. Business must not have been going well for the Motel guy.

Maybe that was why he had allowed the Neo-kids to do their thing? They were going to make a lot of money if they had pulled this off, had they promised him a cut?

"So what's going to happen to this place now?" Laura asked, changing the subject to another good question.

"No idea, maybe it'll get torn down," Lanette guessed as the wind blew past us, making the building creak loud enough to wake up a sleeping pokémon. "If the elements don't take care of that for us that is,"

 _"A more pressing question,"_ Brook messaged me as she jumped up onto my shoulder. _"Where exactly are we sleeping for the night? I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to step a toe back into that place,"_

"Good point Brook," I said before quickly telling everyone she had said.

"I'm with Brook on this one," Laura admitted. "Maybe we should just set up camp close to here?"

"You know," Lanette said carefully as she rubbed her chin. "I think I have a few spare inflatable beds from the time Bill and the others stayed over and helped set up the network,"

"Does that mean what I think it does?" Laura asked, beaming with hope.

"If you guys want, I can set you up at my place," She offered before holding up her index finger. "But it's going to be crowded, so just be ready for that,"

 _"Sounds great, I'm in,"_ Brook announced before swinging around and placing her hand her pokéball which was still on my chest.

"Well, there's that," I said as I looked at the pokéball where Brook was probably already sleeping. "Sounds good to me, lead the way Lanette,"

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, Nikki and Laura were running down a path in a hurry. I watched them run from the comfort of my pokéball, wondering what the hurry was.

"Maybe Milk know something?" I asked myself as I got up and walked over to the common room. I walked into the room and spotted both Khesen and Milk standing around and watching the two humans running for their life.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" I asked as both Milk and Khesen greeted me back.

"The boat leaves earlier than usual today," Milk explained. "If they didn't leave right now, they were going to miss it,"

"Oh," I said as I watched them run. "So no breakfast yet?"

"On the boat," Milk explained as I let out a sigh and sat down next to her and Khesen.

I had to admit, even with the no breakfast, all four of us sitting together like this was nice. I thought back to something that Warmth said, that a trainer normally carried around six pokémon. I glanced around and tried to imagine what this place would look like with three more pokémon standing around.

Despite my best attempts, I just couldn't see it.


	16. Episode 16

**Episode 16: The club**

* * *

"We cut this way too close," I said as I glanced at the very late breakfast in the plate in front of me.

"You got that right," Laura added as she ate her own food.

Learning that the boat to Fallarbor proper was leaving early that day was rough. Having to rush out the door with no food for either of us or our pokémon was even rougher.

 _"_ _I feel as though we should have looked this up beforehand,"_ Brook added as she sat next to me and ate away. A part of me wanted to scold her for 'speaking' with her mouth full, even though she wasn't speaking at all. _"_ _But I guess we were pretty busy with everything else,"_

I shrugged and decided to just enjoy myself for now.

Laura and I were both sitting at one of the small tables at the edge of the boat's deck. The pokémon were either sitting with us or on the floor next to us. Surrounding us were a bunch of people who I assumed took up the space that forced us into the bad motel.

I wanted to be mad at them, but then I thought about it for a bit. If we hadn't been forced to stay the night, just how much damage would Team Neo-Aqua have been able to wreck? At the very least they would have canceled the contest, which may have caused a minor riot.

The worst part was that I was only somewhat joking. It had only ever happened once, but one riot caused by angry contest fans was all they needed. Now even the smallest disturbance and everyone joked about starting a riot.

Contest delayed due to weather? Riot.

Venue has to be closed down due to damage? Riot.

Popcorn cost too much this year? Riot.

"So do you want to go see the contest?" I asked Laura as we finished eating. She glanced down at her fork a bit as it twirled around in her food as she hummed to herself.

"Maybe?" She stated with a wince. "I mean, it's pretty big in this region. But it's just that…"

"You don't really get it?" I guessed.

"I don't l know if I want to get it," She corrected as she set the fork down. "It's like… it looks so complicated, and the idea of figuring it all out freaks me out a little,"

"I mean, I guess that makes sense," I lied as I came up with a better idea. "How about this, go to the contest, and if you find yourself wanting to know what's going on, then dive in, and if you don't, then don't,"

"That's not such a bad plan," She admitted. "Maybe I'll go with that,"

"Yeah, now all I have to do is figure out how I'm going to explain a bunch of contest stuff to… do you hear that?" I asked her as I heard a small commotion start on the other side of the boat. We all stopped eating and glanced over at a small crowd.

In the center of the crowd were a pair of trainers standing off. They were both a few years older than me, and both wore clothes that were noticeable nicer hen mine. The blond boy wore a stylish blue suit with a brown belt, while the girl wore a lacy green and white dress with an umbrella at her side.

With the way they were facing off, and the fact that both of them had a pokéball in their hand, I could guess where this was going.

"A bit too crowded to have a battle," I mumbled to myself as I glanced at the large crowd surrounding the pair, the lack of proper match field and the little space between them. Maybe if they stuck to smaller pokémon it might work out, but if they picked anything that even approached the bigger end of the scale…

"Go Milotic!" They both yelled, proving me wrong as a pair of gigantic water snakes appeared, coiling around each of them.

"There is not enough space on this boat for those two to battle here," I said plainly as both Laura and Brook got up from their seats in case they needed to put some distance between us and the fight.

"Are you ready?" The kid in the suit announced as his Milotic got close enough for him to stroke its head. He smirked at the girl as he gently stroked Milotic, the pokémon letting closing its eyes as he did so.

"Of course," The girl replied as her own Milotic got close enough for her to do the same.

"Then, I'll make the first move," the suit kid said as he reached into his jacket and pulled out… a magnifying glass?

He held the magnifying glass towards the Milotic's skin and held it up for the girl to see as she closed the distance between them.

"As you can clearly see, my Milotic's scales are of the highest quality!" He loudly boasted as few of the people in the crowd looked at each other in confusion. Had I been a bit closer, I would have been one of them.

"Well, his body scales are pretty good," The girl said as she closed her eyes and pouted a bit. Her small frown suddenly turned into a smug grin as her eyes opened. "But those red antenna-hair scales look a bit dull to me,"

The boy flinched back like he had just been hit as the girl's Milotic moved in, shifting so that it's antenna-hair moved onto the girl's hand.

"Look at this vibrant color," She said as she stroked the antenna. "It's almost like they were made from the finest rubies, don't you think,"

The boy's Milotic rolled its eyes a bit as it moved its own antenna back to be a bit out of sight. The crowd was just as confused as when they had started, and a few of them were even walking away from the pair.

The two Milotic trainers kept going on like that for a while, ignoring the dwindling crowd as they compared their Milotic's on every possible factor, and even a few that I had thought impossible.

I never would have guessed that the interior curve of the red spots on a Milotic's tail fan were something worth comparing, but apparently I was wrong.

"Alright, I think that does it for all the standard categories," The girl said as she looked around, her smile fading as she did so. "Where did everybody go?

By the end of the whole thing, there were only a few scattered people left watching the thing.

"I have no clue," The boy told her as his eyebrows narrowed. "Something else must have caught their attention. Must have been quite the sight if it could have distracted from a match between our lovelies," He explained as he scratched his Milotic under its chin.

"Such a shame…" She said with a sigh. "Oh well, so, how much did I beat you by?"

"Excuse me?" The blond kid asked, clearly confused. "I thought, you were keeping track of the score,"

"No I thought… neither of us decided on a scorekeeper before we started," The girl realized before letting out another sigh.

"It's too bad," The boy said sounding bummed out about the whole thing. "Walking into the meeting with a win under my belt would have been nice,"

"Look on the bright side, think of it as a warm-up for the real trails to come," The girl said before she leaned forward and whispered something into his ear. The boy's eye immediately went wide, his mouth agape.

"You mean he's coming this year?" He tried to whisper. Tried being the keyword here, his excitement raising his volume enough that I could hear every word. "Why would he come see us, I thought he couldn't stand us,"

"Not too loud," the girl said as she looked over the few people that were still standing around this deck. "I'll tell you more about it when we reach shore,"

With that the pair both left, heading into the lower decks as a pair, any hostility they had been showing earlier nowhere to be seen.

"Wonder what that was all about?" I asked aloud as we all took our seats again.

"Maybe it has something to do with the contest?" Laura asked a question that would have made sense if you knew nothing about contests.

"No chance," I told her with a nod as I began to give her the explanation that I had been practicing or years in case I ever met someone from another region. "Personal appearance is a factor in contests, but despite what people in other regions, might say, it's not everything. Trainer-pokémon coordination and style are both weighed more in the first round, and personal appearance doesn't factor in at all in the rounds after that. Plus the judges make their observations from a desk, way too far away to notice anything that those two were comparing,"

"And so the mystery deepens," Laura said as she looked over the water and off into the distance.

 _"_ _Knowing our luck, we'll end up finding out exactly what was up with those two by the time we leave Fallarbor,"_ Brook both told me and chirped aloud as she sat the edge of the table, her legs dangling back and forth. _"_ _Probably before, during, or after events that could be called 'shenanigans'. And hey, if we get really lucky, I'll even be able to get a battle out of it,"_

Brook smirked and punched her fist into her hand as both Vimilky and Khesen gave me matching stares. I looked at them

"You're still on probation," I added as Brook froze in place. Khesen and Vimilky both took a careful step back as Brook slowly turned her head towards me.

 _"_ _What?"_

"You're still on probation for a little while longer," I told her again. "Once we get out of Fallarbor, you're back on the frontline,"

 _"_ _But you let me battle those Neo-Aqua kids. Why didn't that count?"_

"Because that was an emergency were I needed to shut down two criminals as quickly as possible," I explained as Khesen and Vimilky both nodded along with me. "Not picking you would have been dumb and could have led to some very bad things. If we get into a normal battle, then the probation is still on,"

Brook glanced at Khesen, then at Vimilky, and then back at me. She blinked twice and smiled sweetly at me.

 _"_ _So what you're saying is that all I need to get a battle is to run into a bunch of criminals,"_

I let out a sigh as I grabbed Brook's pokéball and recalled the grinning Kirlia.

* * *

"I think I made a good point," I said to myself as I laid back on a hammock that I created inside my pokéball. "I mean, with our luck, is it really that crazy to think that we'll run into trouble?"

We had made it off the boat and were currently headed to the local pokécenter where Brenden was apparently waiting for us.

And by us, I meant Nikki, Khesen, milk and I. Laura and her pokémon had split off from us to go visit her mother. Nikki had offered to go visit as well, but Laura's mother 'didn't like strangers', whatever that meant. She was going to meet up with us for the contest which was later today, but until then we were on our own.

I glanced at the outside of the pokéball as Nikki walked through the town. It was pretty small, with wide streets and small buildings everywhere. There were a few taller buildings off in the distance in what I was pretty sure was the center of the town. But aside from everything else, the biggest thing I noticed was that almost everything was entirely covered in a small layer of volcanic ash.

I mean, it made sense, the town was downwind of a volcano. But you would think that they would at least try to clean it up a bit.

Or maybe this was what the town looked like cleaned up, in which case, yikes.

Glad my trainer's not native to this place. I'm having trouble breathing and I'm still in my pokéball.

We arrived at the pokécenter a little while later. It was in the town center with only tall buildings in town. Funnily enough, the ash-covered center was bigger then most of the buildings we had passed by on the way here, but still smaller than everything around it.

"Hello there, I'm here for a meeting in room 413," Nikki told the nurse at the front, following the instructions that Brendan had given him earlier.

"I.D please," The Nurse asked as Nikki handed it over without a word. She looked through it for a bit before handing it back to Nikki with a professional smile on her face. "Thank you. Room 413 will be on the right when you exit the elevator. Would you like to leave with your pokémon with us to recover?"

Nikki glanced down at me. Well, he was looking down at the pokéballs on his chest, but it felt like he was looking at me.

"Maybe in a bit," He finally said. "They're all in good shape, and I have a feeling that part of my meeting is going to involve them anyway,"

"I understand," The nurse said before Nikki bid her goodbye and walked into the elevator. There was a bit of an oddity to Nikki's walk, like his foot was aching. His face was wincing in pain and I could see a bit of sweat going down his brow. I waited a bit until we started moving up and then emerged from my pokéball.

 _"You alright?"_ I asked Nikki as I leaned my back on the elevator wall. _"You look nervous,"_

"I am nervous," He admitted as he let out a breath. "This is the first time I'm meeting Brendan since setting out as a trainer. And he was the one who wanted to talk to me. I'm trying to think of what he could possible want from me, but I can't think of anything,"

 _"I'm sure you'll do fine,"_ I told him as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. Another thought struck me as we walked out onto the carpeted floor. _"By the way, did you ever tell Brendan about what happened with Flannery?"_

"No, I didn't tell him," Nikki said as I let out a sigh of relief. No worrying about getting scolded by warmth. "But if it comes up I will tell him that you're on probation until we get out of the city,"

So all I needed to do was to make sure that the topic of battling didn't come up. Should be easy…

"Here we are, room 413," Nikki said as he took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

I put my hands together and swayed back and forth as we waited for a response.

"Come in,"

And there it was.

Nikki gulped as he grabbed the door handle and pushed it open.

It was a pretty standard pokécenter room, with brown walls and a green carpet covering the floor. Unlike the rooms we normally got, there was only one bed though. Made sense considering that Brenden traveled alone.

Brendan himself was sitting at the edge of said bed, smiling at us as he got to his feet.

"Nikki, it's good to see you," He said as he walked over and patted Nikki on the back. "I'm so glad you managed to get here before the contest. And Brook, look at you, you've already evolved,"

He put his hand down on my head and ruffled my hair a bit. A chirped in annoyance as I tried to keep him away from my head with my arms.

Anyone who would later say that I laughed while doing so was a filthy liar and that was the story I was sticking with.

"Good to see you too Brendan," Nikki greeted back. How are things going?"

Brendan deflated a bit as he retracted his hand away from my head. "Not too well, to be honest, but a maybe a little better now that you're here,"

"You know you can count on me," Nikki said with a weak chuckle. "But, um… what exactly did you need me to do?"

Brendan smile washed away as he let out a frustrated sigh. "Can't believe that I have to do this," He mumbled as he walked over to the desk that came with the room and grabbed what looked like a flyer. "Read this,"

Brendan handed the flyer over to Nikki as I jumped onto his shoulder to get a better look.

On the flyer was a bunch of text that I couldn't read, plus some artist drawings of a certain pokémon that I had just seen earlier today.

"The Milotic club?" Nikki asked aloud as he tilted his head to the side in confusion. "What is this?"

"It's what it sounds like, a 'club' made up of people who have Milotics. In order to get in, you need a Milotic in high condition, but the more famous you are, the more they're willing to skirt the rules," Brendan explained. "And if you get famous enough they just add you to the list without asking,"

Well now I guess I knew what was up with those two kids on the boat. Should have made a bet with one of the others, I would have gotten something out of it.

"You're a member?" Nikki asked as he glanced down at the paper again. I looked at Brendan and tried to imagine him next to those snooty kids from earlier today.

Out of place didn't even begin to describe it.

"Like I implied, I was added to the members list without being asked. Wallace has the same story actually," Brendan said as he crossed his arms. "Unlike me, he actually attends some of the meetings from time to time to make sure they stay a bunch of eccentric but harmless pokéfans and don't become something more dangerous,"

 _"What could they even do?"_ I asked which caught Nikki's eye.

"Brook just asked what they could do," Nikki told Brendan who raised his eyebrow.

"You can…? Oh right, Uncle mentioned something about you learning how to talk to Brook psychically," He said as he smiled and placed his hands on his hips. "Remind me to ask you about that later,"

"Sure thing, so you about the club?" Nikki said, keeping the conversation focused.

"Oh right, well the thing is that Feebas are rare, really rare and they're also kind of hard to raise into Milotics if you don't know what you're doing," Brendan explained as he took out a pokéball and placed it onto the desk. "So because of that, they're a pretty rare sight on an average trainer's team. So trainers with Milotics tend to come in two types. Experienced trainers like me or Wallace…"

"Or people with the money to acquire a Milotic as a pet pokémon," Nikki finished for him.

"How'd you guess?" Brendan said with a laugh as he scratched the back of his head.

"Had a bit of an encounter on the boat on the way here," Nikki explained. "Two rick kids that compared their Milotics,"

"Yeah, a sizable majority of Milotic club members could be described as 'rich'. With all that money comes power, and with power comes trouble," Brendan sighed as he scrunched up his eyes. "Power to do some pretty stupid things,"

"Like what?" Nikki asked as I tried to think of something stupid enough to warrant this conversation.

"Like trying to become an official group with the authority to decide who gets a Milotic and who doesn't," Brendan explained As Nikki's jaw dropped. The older trainer stepped back and gave Nikki a chance to recover.

I glanced over at Nikki's still open mouth and carefully reached over to his chin and gently pushed it up to close it.

"That's…" Nikki started, ruining my good work closing his mouth for him. "That's stupid, that's so stupid. How would they even get away with that?"

"They won't," Brendan put in plainly. "And hopefully they won't try. Which brings us to why I contacted you,"

Brendan walked over to his bag and emerged a little while later with a blue and beige egg inside of an incubator.

It was so weird to look at. I'd never seen a pokémon egg before, and I sure wasn't expecting to see one today.

"Is that?" Nikki asked as Brendan set the egg down on the table and we all huddled around it.

"It is," Brendan confirmed despite not actually knowing what Nikki was about to say. "It's a Feebas egg, specifically one from my own Milotic,"

"Let me guess," Nikki said as he kept his eyes on the egg. "The Milotic club has opinions on what to do with the super rare Feebas egg that came from a champion pokémon?"

"Yeah 'opinions' is right. Apparently some of the crazies in the club have been talking about convincing me to auction off the egg to one of the other members,"

 _"Is that even legal? As someone new to human society that feels very not legal,"_ I asked as I tried to imagine my mother auctioning me off and bad example never mind.

"It's just barely legal, and only if both me and the purchaser hop through a thousand hoops to make it legal," Brendan explained after Nikki translated my question for him. "Not that it matters, because they'd never get my permission in the first place,"

"So what do you need me to do?" Nikki asked as he glanced back at the egg.

"Someone's who's not a licensed breeder selling an egg to someone who you have no connection to is skirting the edge of illegal. A trainer giving a pokémon egg to a family member is a time-honored tradition that can be done in five minutes,"

Nikki and I both turned towards the egg and processed what Brendan was saying.

"I can't keep the egg, if I did then the Milotic Club would just keep pressuring me to put it up for auction. Giving you the egg would be the strongest way to tell the crazies in the Milotic club that they don't hold any authority over me,"

"Why me? You said that you only needed a family member to take the egg. Why does it have to be me?" Nikki asked softly as he touched the egg's case.

"Milotic has… opinions on what exactly would be best for her son," Brendan explained as he glanced at the pokéball on the desk. "She wants to see him become a strong battler like her, and that won't happen if I hand him over to Ali or your parents,"

"I still only have two badges," Nikki said with a gulp. "Are you really sure that giving such a rare egg to such an inexperienced trainer is the best idea?"

"Giving an unexperienced trainer a rare pokémon like this does sound like a bad idea," He said as he put his hand on top of the egg's case. "But I'm not doing that. I'm entrusting the child of one of my precious pokémon to one of the people who I trust more than anyone else in the world, my cousin Nicholas Maple,"

Nikki glanced back at the egg and then back at Brendan.

"Is it alright if I thought it over a bit?" He asked as he glanced back at the door. "I have to go sign in and get my own room so…"

"Don't worry about it, think it over if you have too. I know that I'm asking you to do something big for me," Brendan said as he nervously looked off to the side. "But… just try to make up your mind soon. The Milotic club meeting is right after the contest and I need to show up to that with the egg already given away for the plan to work,"

* * *

I sat down on my own bed as Brook stood on the desk. I had called Laura on the way back down to see if I needed to get a room for both of us. Apparently she was going to be staying with her Mom while she was in Fallarbor. So for the first time in my trip, I was staying in a single room.

It pretty much looked like Brendan's room.

 _"So what are you going to do?"_ Brook asked me she placed her hands on her hips and looked at me. _"About the egg I mean. We only have a little while until the contest,"_

"I think we should talk it over for a bit first," I told her as I glanced around the room.

It was pretty big for a room meant for one person, in fact it was big enough for me to take out all three of my pokémon and still have a bit of room left over. A fact that was about to become relevant.

I unclipped both of my remaining pokéballs

"Vimilky, Khesen, Come on out," I said as I released both of them into the room. Vimilky appeared on the desk next to Brook while Khesen stood on the floor next to me. Vimilky sat herself down so that her legs dangled over the side of the desk while Khesen crossed his arms and leaned with his back to the wall. "So I assume that the two of you overheard what Brendan and I were talking about. Any thoughts?"

Vimilky went first, saying something pretty short to Brook who then turns towards me.

 _"Milk says that she doesn't like this whole thing, but that we should still take the egg," Brook explained._

"She doesn't like the plan but still thinks we should do it?" I asked, trying to make sense of that. Vimilky talked to Brook for some more before they both turned to me.

 _"This whole thing with the club feels like bad news that we should stay away from, but that's also why she would feel bad leaving the egg behind,"_

Then Khesen started saying something from his spot on the wall. Brook frowned a bit and tilted her head before saying something back.

They had a quick back and forth, with Vimilky chiming in from time to time. It didn't sound heated, but it sound serious. Khesen glared a bit at Brook and said one last thing before Brook turned to me.

"What was that all about?" I asked as Brook swayed from side to side.

 _"Well Khesen's kind of neutral on the whole thing. He'll go with whatever the rest of us decide to do. Other than that, he's mostly just worried about how exactly we'll take care of a newborn pokémon,"_

"Yeah, but newborn pokémon, especially fish-like water types are pretty independent from when they hatch," I said as I glanced over at Khesen who shuffled his feet a bit and turned his eyes away from mine.

 _"Yeah, we told him that, but he's still not sure,"_

Brook explained _. "As for me… Well I think we should take the egg,"_

I turned back to Brook who took a deep breath.

 _"Here's the thing, if this Egg has to go somewhere, then we are far from the worst kind of people he can end up with,"_ She explained as she started speaking aloud and psychically at the same time. _"But if those crazy people that Brendan told us about get their way, who knows where that Egg will end up,"_

"You have a point there Brook," I told her as I looked at all three of my pokémon. I had two yes's and a neutral. No one really opposed me taking the Egg.

 _"Of course I have a point,"_ She said as she closed her eyes and gave a proud huff. The smile on her face got a bit gentler before she opened her eyes. _"But we still haven't heard from the most important person in this room yet,"_

"And who would that be?' I asked despite knowing full well that the answer was going to be.

 _"Well you of course. Do you want to take the Egg in the first place?"_ She asked as both Brook and Khesen turned towards me and watched me carefully.

"I… I don't know," I admitted as I sat laid down on the bed and looked at the ceiling. "Whenever I try to think about taking the Egg, it feels like my brain starts arguing with itself. All the reasons for and against just start going at it,"

 _"Well, maybe saying the reasons aloud will help you out?"_ Brook suggested. I blinked a bit as my fingers tapped on the bed.

"Well let's get the easy practical stuff out of the way first, the stuff unrelated to the Egg" I said as I organized my thoughts. "Milotics are strong pokémon, and even I have to admit that I dreamed about having one on my team since I was a kid. Hat aside, I can't think of anything that could fit on the team better than a water type. But at the same time, I've heard that Feebas are tricky to raise," I finished as my hands twitched. I had gotten the easy part out of the way, now all that was left was the personal stuff.

"Brendan asked me to this for him. He's counting on me to this," I said as I felt like garbage for saying this next part. "But one of the reasons I set out on this journey in the first place was to make my own way. To get out of Brendan's and Uncle Norman's shadow. Getting a rare pokémon from Brendan that he's famous for using feels like the exact opposite of both of those things,"

No one said anything as I got off from the bed.

"Wow, that sounds even worse when I said it aloud," I told Brook. "Maybe I should take the Egg,"

 _"As much as I want you to take the egg, maybe you should think about it a little while longer. We still have a bit of time before we have to choose anyway,"_ Brook said as she pointed toward the door. _"Why don't you take a walk before you make your choice… maybe grab an early lunch while you're at it?"_

All three of us turned towards Brook and gave her the same look as she looked off to the side and whistled for a bit.

"I mean… You're not wrong," I told her as I grabbed the pokéballs and recalled everyone.

I took the elevator down to the cafeteria and found some food that looked pretty good to me, as well as some food for my pokémon. I bought what I needed and sat down at a table as I handed the food out to my team who sat next to me.

As I ate into the bread roll in front of me, I thought back to what I had said in the room. It was a little weird now that I thought about it. Taking the rare pokémon egg that fitted perfectly into my team was somehow the selfish option.

Not the ordeal I would have expected to deal with when I woke up this morning.

"So what do you have in mind for the club meeting?" I raised my eyebrow as I heard someone say from the table behind me. I grabbed my pokénav and fired up the front-facing camera and angled it so that it saw past me.

At the table was a blond kid around my age wearing some fancy red clothing. He was leaning back on his chair and had both of his arms crossed. Surrounding him were a small group of kids that had similarly nice looking clothes. Not as nice as the blond kid though.

"My Father says he's been wearing Brendan down. He's sure that the offer he'll make today will be enough to convince him to give the egg up for auction. Once that happens, that Feebas is all mine,"

So this is the kid who would get the Egg if I didn't. Based on the way that all three of my pokémon had stopped eating, they were listening in too.

"So what are you going to do with the thing?" One of the kids asked. "I mean, Milotics are pretty cool but you can't do much with just a Feebas,"

"My father reassures me that he has ways to evolve a Feebas nice and early," The kid said smugly. "I won't have to deal with the ugly little fish for too long,"

I rolled my eyes as I took a deep breath. I hadn't even talked directly yet but I already couldn't stand him. Just listening to him talk made the decision with the egg so much easier to make.

"How does Feebas evolve anyway?" One of the other kids asked. "I heard that it was pretty tricky,"

"Well there are two ways," The kid in red explained. "Either it 'comes into its true beauty', whatever that means, or you can just do the sensible thing and use a prism scale,"

And just like that I was opening up the chat function on my pokénav and sending a message to Brendan. I told him my room number and to meet me there in five minutes with the Egg.

Using an item like a prism scale to evolve a pokémon was always a little hard on the pokémon since it wasn't a fully natural evolution. To use one on a newly hatched pokémon was unthinkable… unless you were this kid in red anyway.

My pokémon and I finished up our food and headed back up soon after that. We didn't have to wait for too long until Brendan walked in with the Egg.

"So you made your choice then?" Brendan asked as he walked in with a bag in his arms.

"I overheard the son of one of your potential buyers while I was getting lunch," I explained. "After hearing him talk, I knew that I couldn't let him get his hands on the Egg,"

"Yeah, that would do it," He said as he set the bag down and removed the Egg's incubator from it. "Okay, so now you get a crash course on taking care of a pokémon Egg,"

* * *

Both Milk and I listened in on the explanation on Egg care from the comfort of our pokéballs. It was pretty interesting to hear, and I figured that Nikki would appreciate having two more pairs of hands helping with the Egg.

"Are you sure that this was the right choice?" Milk asked as Brendan finished his explanation. We were in the common room, sitting around the center. She was slumped forward, her elbows on her knees and her chin settled on her hands.

"A little too late for that don't you think?" I told her. "All we can do now is roll with the punches and make the best of it. We have one more pokémon on the team to watch out for now,"

"I guess," She said as she leaned back and caught herself with her other jaw. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes. "Chancing the subject… what exactly are the humans going to?"

"I think it's called a 'contest'. From the little I understand, it's like a competition where human trainers show off their pokémon," I told her as she opened her eyes and turned her head towards me.

"Isn't that just a battle?" She asked as I tried to figure out why she was wrong.

I couldn't think of anything.

"Maybe it'll make more sense when we go and see it?" I offered as I settled in for the trip to the contest hall. I noticed that we were walking towards the less developed part of the town. The buildings around us were slowly getting smaller until everything around us was a single floored building.

So with everything around us so low, the large almost stadium-like building was pretty easy to spot.

"I guess that's the contest hall," I said as Nikki and Brendan approached the hall, Nikki wearing a modified backpack meant to keep the Egg safe.

I didn't like it. I mean I got the idea behind it, transporting the egg safely was important. But did it have to be in such a noticeable way? If the crazies of the Milotic club were as crazy as the name implied, then I could imagine them taking offense to us having the egg. Offence that might lead to a fight.

And there was no way Nikki was getting himself into a fight while I was still on probation. They might be my friends, but there was no way I was letting Milk and Khesen have all the fun.

"So anyone big entering the contest?" Nikki asked Brendan.

"Oh there's a few big names attending this one," The older human responded "James the Crimson, Alice the Lost, 77-bolt Zeni, and those are just the really big ones,"

"Wow those are some big names," Nikki said as his eyes winded. "What about Serpent King Juzi? Is he in?"

"Right I forgot you were a big Juzi fan. I only skimmed the listing for the names I knew. He might be in, but I'm not sure,"

I leaned forward inside the common room and warped my arms around my knees.

"Hey Milk," I said.

"Yeah Brook?" She responded back as she dangled her legs back and forth.

"Do you have any idea about what they're talking about?" I asked the Mawile.

"Not a clue," She answered back as the humans kept talking without really saying anything.

I shook my head at the bizarre ways of humans when I noticed that they had both stopped walking. I glanced over and saw a well-dressed human standing in front of them.

"Brendan," The man greeted cheerfully. "How wonderful to see you before the meeting later today,"

"Mr. Irving," Brendan forced a smile as he walked over and shook the man's hand. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I wanted to speak to you about a certain matter before the…" Mr. Irving trailed off as he noticed Nikki and the big notable egg carrier on his back. "And who is this,"

Brendan took a step behind Nikki and held him by the shoulders.

"Oh this is my cousin, Nicholas Maple," He said, a genuine smile coming to his face as he said the word 'cousin'.

"I see," Mr. Irving growled as he closed his eyes and took a breath. "I must apologize, I just remembered that I have a bit of business to take care of before the club meeting. I guess I'll be missing the first round of the contest,"

The man walked away while grumbling something under his breath.

"Was he one of the…" Nikki said before trailing off.

"The crazies that want to turn the Milotic club into some sort of pseudo-political organization that gets to decide who 'deserves' a Milotic?" Brendan finished for him. "Well he's not just one of them, he's pretty much the ring leader,"

"He's somehow both exactly and nothing like what I was expecting," Nikki said before refusing to elaborate. "You think I should duck out of the contest and head out of town now?"

"Well…" Brendan said as he rubbed his chin. "I don't think Irving will do anything too crazy, so you should be good,"

"Okay then, let's get to our seats," Nikki said as they headed into the contest hall.

* * *

I walked out of the contest hall with a chip on my shoulder.

"I can't believe Juzi failed to rank," I moaned as Brendan tried to pat my shoulder. I glanced down at the resting arm and batted it away. "Don't you dare pity me when you're favorite took the top spot,"

"What can I say," Brendan said with a smirk. "Always bet on Alice,"

"Yeah, yeah, now go head to your club," I told him as I shooed him away with my hand. He just laughed and started walking away.

"This is not how I expected today to go," I muttered to myself as I shifted my shoulder, feeling the weight of the egg on my back. "Now to find Laura,"

"No need, I'm already here,"

I almost jumped as Laura suddenly jumped out from behind me.

"Nikki, good to see you," She said as she tilted her head to the side.

"What is that," She asked as she pointed at the large, noticeable, egg carrier on my bag. I glanced back and shifted my eyes from side to side as I weighed my options.

Most of the Milotic club was probably already heading to the club, but I didn't know who was in it. For all I knew, a member of the crazies was standing right behind me. Dealing with one of them while Brendan was right next to me, easy.

Dealing with another member now that I was on my own? Didn't sound like the best idea to me.

"I'll tell you about it later," I told Laura as I started walking towards the exit. "In the meantime, how's your mom?"

"Oh she's good, really looking forward to seeing me again. Still won't leave the house a lot, but that's pretty normal for her," She explained as we walked out into the streets of Fallarbor town. "She was also a little mad that I went to Lavaridge and I didn't get her any sort of souvenir,"

"Good thing we're passing through there again," I said as I glanced down at my pokéballs. I had a rough working strategy for my rematch with Flannery, but nothing that I would be willing to bet on.

"Speaking of, how much longer are we staying in Fallarbor?" She asked as I stopped in place. Part of me wanted to get out of town as quickly as possible to avoid dealing with the Milotic club. But it was already pretty late, and after everything that happened with the motel, I was looking forward to spending the night in a proper room.

"I'm not sure," I finally admitted as I looked around and noticed that the streets had gotten a bit less crowded. "I want to stay the night…"

"Great, my Mom wanted me to stay the night," She cut me off before I could say 'but'. I opened my mouth to correct her when I noticed her beaming smile. I closed my mouth and let out a sigh.

"Yeah, I guess we'll meet up tomorrow morning in the pokécenter's lobby?" I offered as I remembered that I had just met up with my own family a little while ago.

"Sound's great," She said as she lightly punched my shoulder and started walking away with a skip in her step.

As soon as Laura was out of sight, one of the pokéballs opened by itself as Brook stood next to me. She pouted at me with her arms crossed.

 _"Don't you think that maybe not telling Laura about everything with the Milotic club might be a bad idea?"_ She argued. _"I mean, we're calling the group we're up against 'the crazies'. Wouldn't it be better if she knew what was going on in case they come after her?"_

"They're 'the crazies' because they want an insane amount of power, not because they're violent," I explained. "Plus did you see how happy she was to spend some more time with her mom? Laura will be just fine,"

Brook shrugged at me. _"If you say so, but I still want to be on the record as thinking that this was the wrong call,"_ She messaged me as she started walking away.

"Hey, where are you going?" I asked as I started following after her.

 _"I'm heading back to the pokécenter before we run into any trouble that I'm not allowed to fight,"_ She explained as she glared at the two other pokéballs on my chest. _"If I don't get to fight, then no one does,"_

"I think you may have your priorities mixed up a bit," I told her as I noticed that we were no longer taking the route Brendan and I had taken to get to the contest hall. We had made it there by taking a single large, albeit winding road that led out from the crowded downtown into the more open are in the north.

Brook was instead walking straight south right into the most crowded section of downtown.

"Are you sure you know the way?" I asked as the leading Kirlia giggled before turning back at me and giving me a smug grin.

 _"I figured that I would save us some time and take the shortest route to the pokécenter,"_ She explained as she kept walking forward towards a narrow alley. _"Still don't know why you and Brendan too such a long way around,"_

"Because taking the long way around put us in the safest part of the town?" I explained as I glanced around at the quickly growing buildings that were starting to tower around us. "And taking a straight line takes us through a part of town that Brendan wanted to avoid for some reason," I pointed out as we both emerged from the alley and into a pretty nice looking part of the town.

The streets were clean and on either side of the road were two-story townhouses that were freshly painted and looked to be in good condition, a far cry from the taller buildings that surrounded this little neighborhood on all sides. To my left was a small park that had an even small arena and a tennis court.

The only thing off about this whole place was the ever falling ash that was still falling all around us. Then again we had been dealing with that ever since we arrived to the town in the first place.

 _"Ash aside, this place looks pretty nice,"_ Brook said as we both looked around. _"I wonder why Brendan wanted to avoid it."_

"Let's try not to worry about it and just keep going," I said as I kept walking with the full intent of making it to the pokécenter before nightfall.

"Hello there, excuse me,"

I let out a pained sigh as I heard a voice that I had only heard once before. It was earlier today, while we were eating at the pokécenter.

I slowly turned around and saw the boy in red standing down the street from me. He was under an umbrella that was being held up by an older man in a suit. Now that I could get a good look at him, the familial resemblance to Mister Irving was uncanny. He looked just like the man but younger and a little thinner.

"Hello there, your name wouldn't happen to be Nicholas Maple, would it?" He asked with a flourish even though I had a feeling he already knew the answer.

"Yes, yes it would. And you are…?" I said, trying to stay polite despite knowing what kind of person this guy was.

"I apologize for my rudeness," He said as he placed his hand on his chest. "My name is Lawrence Irving. I've been looking for you for some time now,"

"I see," I told him as I choose my words carefully. "So, what do you want with me?"

"Come now, let's not play games, we both know why I'm standing here before you," He said before pointing right at me. "I'm here to make my offer for that egg,"

I was about to ask him 'what egg' but figured that it would be a waste of time. This called for a more direct approach.

"The Egg's staying with me," I told him as I spread my legs out a bit ad Brook rushed out in front of me and spread her arms out.

"Come now, are you really going to stand there and claim that you have no price?" He argued as a woman in a suit appeared carrying a briefcase. With a single snap of his fingers, the woman opened the case and showed me what was inside.

That was… a lot of money. Almost what I would call an obscene amount of money.

I mean there was no amount of cash that Lawrence could show me that would make me give up the egg, but I was a little impressed with how much he was willing to put on the table.

"As much cash as that is, I'm not giving up this Egg," I told him as I stood my ground.

"I see, based on your reaction I'm guessing that there is no offer that I can make that you'll take?" I shook my head at Lawrence's' question. "No rare pokémon, no impressive items, not priceless relics? Fine then. I'll give you one last chance. Give me the Egg or you might find yourself dealing with some… unpleasantness,"

"Are you threatening me?" I growled, absolutely done with this guy. "Sorry, but that's not going to work either,"

"Fine then," He said as he pretended to wipe a tear off his face. It might have worked if he didn't have the ugliest grin on his face. "I wanted to do this the clean way… but you leave me no choice,"

He lifted his arm up into the air as I tensed up.

He snapped his finger again and I tensed up as I watched both of the suited flunkies. I felt a little confused when neither of them moved a muscle, only for me to hear a slight buzzing sound from my right.

I turned towards the alley, eyes wide, as a Beedrill launched itself from the shadows. It came right at me, its stinger raised and ready to stab me.

I gulped, trying to jump out of the way as a bright flash of light emerged from one of the pokéballs on my chest.

The Bedrill stopped in midflight as Khesen emerged right in front of me and grabbed its stinger that was inches away from my neck.

The insect pokémon buzzed in annoyance as it raised its other stinger, ready to attack Khesen. The Breloom just scowled before quickly punching the bee in the face before it could react.

"Did you just order your pokémon to attack me?" I demanded as I walked past forward Brook and Khesen threw the Beedrill back at Lawrence. The rich boy glanced down at the fallen pokémon with an ugly sneer.

"Useless little bug," He scoffed before looking back up at me. "If you must know, Bedrill was merely going to prick you with some mild paralytics,"

"How is that any better?" I demanded as I reached for Vimilky's pokéball in case I needed all three of my pokémon.

"I hoped that paralyzing you would allow me to take the egg without a fight," He explained like he didn't see anything wrong with that he was saying. "By the time you would have recovered I would have been long gone from here,"

"And you think the rest of my pokémon would be okay with you just taking the newest member of the team?" I asked as Khesen growled at Lawrence.

"What would they have done? With you paralyzed, you wouldn't have been able to issue any commands to them. And without you around to command them, what would you're pokémon do?"

"When exactly did I command Khesen to block Beedrill's attack?" I demanded as Lawrence blinked and looked down at the downed pokémon at his feet and then at Khesen who was in a boxing pose.

"Yes, how did you do that exactly? My pokémon would never come to my defense like that if I didn't order them to do so," He scoffed. "You must have given them special training right?"

"Have you ever considered that you're just a horrible trainer?" I pointed out as Khesen nodded. "Right Brook?" I asked before turning to the Kirlia who had been eerily silent until now.

A single glance would be all I needed to know why she hadn't said anything.

"Brook?" I asked as the Kirlia in question stood dead still, her eyes glowing red and crackling with lightning. The ash around her was no longer falling down, but moving around her in a swirling vortex. Her hands were tightened into fists that were also covered in swirling red psychic energy.

 _"You hurt my trainer…"_ I heard in my mind. Based on the way that Lawrence gasped and the way the two suits were baking away, I guessed that they had heard it too.

"Brook, are you okay?" I asked as I held my arms forward in a claiming motion.

 _"You tried to hurt my trainer!"_ She yelled as she pointed her arms downwards and launched herself right at Lawrence in an explosion of psychic force.

* * *

I growled as the two other humans got in my way. I raised my arms up and opened fire on both of them, blasting them out of the way. The path to my target was wide open.

I landed on the human's chest, knocking him to the ground. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled it up towards me, my other hand bursting with enough power to blast his head clean off.

"Brook!" I heard Nikki call, probably encouraging me to finish the job. I smiled at the soon to be dead Human and pulled my free hand back. I think I heard Nikki say something else after that, but I wasn't really paying attention.

I let loose a blast of psychic energy… only for something to grab my arm and point it skywards. I looked up and watched as my blast of red psychic energy flew off into the distance.

I glanced back and saw Khesen holding my arm back, a frown on his face.

"Brook calm down," He said as I glanced down at the terrified human in front of me, and then at my hand.

I blinked as the red psychic energy dissipated and I thought about what had just happened.

I was going to… I was about to… I had wanted to…

"I think I'm going to be sick," I mumbled as I let go of the human's shirt and slowly backed away from him. I quickly glanced around and spotted a useful bush.

I rushed over to it and I would rather not think about what happened next.

"Brook, are you okay?" Nikki said as he walked over to me and placed his hand on my head.

I glanced up at him before trying to wipe away… that… from my chin.

"I think," I chirped before remembering. _"I think I want to go back inside my pokéball,"_

"Okay," He said softly before taking my ball and recalling me.

I glanced around the ball before willing a warm bath to appear.

* * *

"Okay so just to make this clear," I said as I put Brook's ball away. "Over the course of the last few minutes, you've tried to illegally bribe me, threaten me, have you're pokémon attack me, and traumatized my starter by doing so," I explained carefully as Lawrence got to his feet. His immaculate clothing was roughed up, and he was covered in soot. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something but fell silent as soon as we locked eyes. "Anything else you would like to add to the list while you're at it?"

He gaped for a bit before turning away from me. As he did, both of his suited thugs got to their feet.

"How dare you threaten the son of Mr. Irving," The suited guy said as he took out a pokéball.

"You'll pay for this," The suited girl said as she did the same. They both tossed out pokéballs, a pair of Machop's coming out of them.

"You really still want to do this?" I said as I sent Vimilky out next to Khesen.

The Mawile glared at both pokémon as Khesen flexed and got ready for a fight.

"Enough," We all stopped as Lawrence walked up to his two suited goons. And placed a hand on each of their shoulders. He still looked a little worse for wear, but had apparently recovered from Brook's rough treatment. "I think this is enough for today,"

"But Master Lawrence," The girl said only for Lawrence to hold his palm up. The girl immediately stopped.

"You have been foolish to challenge me Nicholas Maple," He said with a flourish like he hadn't just tried to assault me with his pokémon. "But I think we should stop today's… excitement now before things get worse,"

"What world do you live in?" I asked as I tried to understand what my ears were saying.

"Understand this, that future Milotic will be mine," He said as he raised his fist into the sky. "One way or another, it will come to me, as all things that I want in this world do,"

He turned around, the suited goon picking up his dropped umbrella while the other suited goon picked up the briefcase she had dropped when Brook had blasted her.

Without a word, all three of them ran off, the first suited goon trying to keep the umbrella under Lawrence.

"Well," I said as I recalled both Khesen and Vimilky into their pokéballs. "That was a thing,"

I groaned as I looked around and noticed that despite the literal street fight, no one had reacted one bit. Strange… but not strange enough to distract me from something that was way more important.

"Brook," I said as I grabbed her pokéball. I needed to get to the pokémon center to see if she was okay.

* * *

I felt the sensation of the healing machine passing over me. Thanks to the healing mod, we didn't get the chance to feel it too often, but I liked it. It was warm, and comforting, and let me relax and not think about… stuff.

After that, I reconfigured the ball to take the form of two trees with a hammock between them. I climbed up and laid down with my arms clasped together over my chest.

I tried to sleep, forcing my eyes closed as whimpering as I shuffled around trying to get comfortable.

It didn't work. I couldn't stop thinking about everything that had happened. My eyes flew open as I let out a sigh. If avoiding it wasn't going to work…

"Might as well think about it," I groaned as I looked straight up at the fake stars overhead and thought about what I had almost done.

Why… why had I done that?

No that was stupid. I knew why. Because Nikki almost got hurt and I hadn't been able to do a thing to stop it. Because after spending all day hoping for a fight, I got one and it almost ended in disaster.

That power…

I unclasped my hands and held them up in front of my face, shivering as I remembered how it felt. The raw power coursing through me, the feeling like I was an unstoppable force of destruction. The sensation of holding someone's life in my hands, their existence being at my mercy. I had liked it.

I didn't like that I liked it.

"Am I a monster?" I wondered aloud as I felt myself getting called out from the pokéball.

Something that I don't think most humans knew was that you could resist the call to exit the pokéball. I had to admit, a part of me wanted to do just that. Stay in this nice little ball and deal with this on my own.

The rest of me thought that part was an idiot and let myself get pulled out of the ball.

"Hey Brook," Nikki said as I materialized on the bed in the same pose I had been on the hammock. "Are… are you okay?"

Was I? Honestly?

 _"No, I'm not okay,"_ I told him as he sat down next to me. He patted my head as I closed my eyes and tried to relax. _"I just felt so… angry, angrier then I've ever felt before,"_

"It's not your fault," He lied as he kept his hand on my head. I clutched my hands together again and took a deep breath.

I told him everything, about how good it had felt and how I had lost myself to my rage. How if Khesen hadn't stopped me, I would have done it without any hesitation.

The whole time, Nikki just kept stroking my head. By the time I was done, I was a crying mess.

I couldn't wait until we got out of this town.


	17. Episode 17

**Episode 17: Ninja hidden in the soot**

* * *

"Are you sure you're fine?" Laura asked as we stood at the edge of Fallarbor town. "Both you and Brook look like you're on edge,"

"I'm fine," I lied as Brook tugged at my arm.

 _"_ _Tell her that I'm fine too,"_ Brook asked, hoping that I would lie for her too.

"Brook says she's fine too," I lied for her. It was the least I could do for her if she wasn't ready to tell Laura about what had happened the day before.

After helping brook recover from what happened, I contacted Brendan right away. He had freaked out when I told him what happened. He looked just about ready to go on the warpath when I told him the name 'Lawrence Irving'.

He calmed down a bit the instant the name left my mouth. He excused himself for a moment, walked away from the call, and then I think he punched through a wall based on the sound of something getting broken and the state his hand was in when he walked back into frame.

Apparently The Irvings were an even bigger deal then I thought. Not only was the father the owner of a major company that made machine parts for Devon Corp, but his brother was on Devon's board, and some of the other family members were in similar positions. They were just high enough to be untouchable without strong proof, without having too much of a spotlight on them.

I would have thought that attacking me in the middle of a street would have done the trick, but when I told Brendan where the whole thing had happened, he just said that it would be better to give up on trying to find a witness there.

The more I learned about that place, the weirder it got.

For now, the plan was to just move on and hope that Lawrence got bored or at least, attacked me somewhere with actual witnesses.

We had also decided to not tell Laura everything for now. She knew that Lawrence Irving and by extension, most of the Irvings, were bad news, but that was about it.

I thought it was a bad idea, but between Branden warning that even telling Laura about what happened could be dangerous and Brook wanting to keep what happened a secret, the decision was a bit out of my hands.

"Alright, if both of you say so," Laura said, her hands behind her back as she kicked the ground a bit while glancing downwards.

"I'm sure," I told her as I adjusted the egg container on my back and started walking towards the soot-covered forest that made up route 113.

I just had to make it past this and then take either fiery path or the desert to get back to Lavaridge. I was still split on which of the two paths I was going to take.

Well, I had to take 113 either way so better to worry about that on the road.

Despite what I would have expected, it was not currently raining soot and ash.

Now, of course, the ground and grass under my feet were covered in the stuff, as were the trees on either side of the path we were walking down. Little clouds puffed up with our every step and everything below my knees was stained brown. There just wasn't any in the air.

Of course with how much there was around us, who knew how long that would last. Plus, the soot already on the ground gave me another reason to worry.

I glanced down at brook who was carefully stepping to avoid kicking up any more soot then she had to. Even with her best efforts, her lower legs were still covered with the stuff.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather make the trip in your pokéball?" I asked her as she carefully walked over a patch of soot only to accidentally step on a much larger patch, kicking soot up a large cloud of soot.

 _"_ _I'm fine,"_ She said as she waved the soot cloud away from herself and coughed. _"_ _I'd rather deal with the soot then stay in my pokéball right now,"_

"Fair enough," I told her, accepting her explanation as Laura fell back to walk in step with me.

"What were you guys talking about? And is she going to be okay" She asked as I glanced at Brook who was still struggling with the soot.

"She says she'll be fine," I told her as Brook struggled through the soot.

"If she says so," Laura said with a shrug before grinning at me. "So how's the egg?"

"Egg's still good," I told her as I remembered what Brendan had told me about egg care. Specifically about when to remove the egg from its container and for how long. "I'll need to take it out later when we have lunch and wipe it down a bit,"

"You're really giving this your all huh?" She said as we kept walking, a smile worming its way onto my face as I felt the weight of the egg on my back.

We stayed on the path, making good time. By the time noon rolled around, we were almost halfway through the route. That was also when we encountered a bit of trouble.

"Okay so let's set this up," I told my pokémon as I took out the stuff I would need to make lunch. A little off to the side, Laura was doing the same. I set the little stove on a patch of ground that I had cleared of soot when I heard Khesen say something.

I looked up from what I was doing and saw him standing still with his eyes pointed towards the sky. He said something and suddenly both Vimilky and Brook tensed up. I glanced over at Laura to see how she was doing. Both Doduo and Oddish were watching Khesen, looking as worried as my own pokémon. Laura was looking over at me and pointing towards Brook who was gulping while starring at Khesen.

"Brook, what's going on?" I asked as all three of my pokémon suddenly turned their heads at me. It was a bit unnerving to tell the truth, but I wanted answers.

 _"_ _Khesen says that he feels a storm coming,"_ Brook explained both telepathically and out loud as Khesen gave me a quick nod. _"_ _The kind that you won't want to be stuck outside during,"_

"A storm?" I muttered as I took out my pokénav and accessed the weather application. I raised my eyebrow as I spotted a large storm front quickly approaching us. A storm front that had not been there when I had checked the weather this morning.

"Someone must have used a weather move," I muttered as I searched around for a place to shelter from the storm on my pokénav. I clicked my tongue in frustration, there wasn't anything listed near here. "We'll have to make do with whatever we can find,"

I packed up the stuff that I was going to use to make lunch as the storm clouds started to gather on the horizon. They were coming in from the northwest, so at least we would be able to keep moving in the direction we were supposed to go while feeling from the storm.

I returned everyone but Brook to their pokéball as Laura did the same. Without a word, all three of us took off running, kicking up a storm of soot as we did.

* * *

 _"Looks like the storm's here,"_ I told Nikki as raindrops started falling on my head and hitting the ground around us. We had been running for a while now, and we still hadn't found a place to wait out the storm.

And with how annoying the soot already was while it was dry, I was in no mood to deal with it while it was wet.

"Hey I think I see something up ahead," Laura said as she pointed to a dense patch of forest off to the side of the road. It wasn't a full-proof method, but it was the best we had at the moment. The three of us got under the trees as the real downpour started.

"Well it's better than nothing," Nikki said as the trees blocked some, but not all, of the rain. He turned towards the deeper part of the forest. "Maybe the trees are thicker that way?"

I shrugged and followed after him as he started walking deeper in.

"I think you're right," Laura added as she walked up next to us. "I think the rain is…"

She stopped as we heard the sound of a ringing bell as I felt something press up against my leg. I glanced down and saw a taught string next to the base of my feet.

"Book, what was that?" Nikki asked as he and Laura knelt down to get a closer look. We all starred at the string before following it to a small tree where it coiled around a stick before going upwards to a small bell.

"So… what do you think are the odds that that bell's bad news?" Nikki asked as he glanced around the forest, waiting for something to happen.

"I don't know, maybe it was just a prank by someone?" Laura added as she got up.

"No, I don't think it is," We heard a voice say from the trees as we all looked up at a small figure standing within the branches. The figure jumped down, landing right in front of us.

It was a kid around Nikki's age wearing dark gray clothing and a red scarf. He had short, dark red spiky hair, and was carrying what looked like a short sword on his back. In his hand was a soot-covered blanket patterned on one side to look like a bunch of soot colored leaves seen from above.

"Greetings, I am Lung, ninja… in training," He said that last bit just a bit quicker than rest, but we still heard it.

"Uh… hi Lung," Nikki said with a hesitant wave. "I'm Nicholas, and these are Laura and Brook," He motioned to us as we both gave little waves as our names came up.

"Hello there, I never knew that there were also ninjas this far south," Laura said as Nikki raised an eyebrow.

"There are ninjas in Kanto," He asked as the ninja kid scoffed.

"Are there ninjas in Kanto? I will have you know that Kanto is the center of ninja activity. They even have a ninja gym leader," The ninja kid explained as both Nikki and I turned to Laura who just gave a quick nod.

'Ninja gym leader… I wonder what that's like," Nikki said as Lung grinned and took out a pokéball from inside his clothes.

"Why don't you battle me and find out?" He asked as he tossed his pokéball into the air and caught it as it came down. "I'll even sweeten the deal, I you beat me, I'll tell you a good place to wait out the storm,"

"And I'm in," Nikki said as he glanced down to me. "How about you Brook? You think you're up for this?"

Just twenty-four hours ago, I would have already been on the battlefield. But now… no, I wasn't going to let this take control of me. I rushed forward and took my place in front of Nikki.

 _"I was born ready,"_ I told him as I watched the pokéball in the ninja kid's hand.

"Looks like we'll be taking you up on your offer," Nikki said as Lung smiled at us.

"Great, I needed to get in some extra battle practice," He explained as he tossed the pokéball. "Go Ninjask,"

There was a flash of white light as a pokémon that I had never seen before appeared in the air in front of me.

She was a big black bug, with golden chitin patterns over her face and two pairs of white wings with red tips. She had two glowing red eyes and two gray arms dangling from her torso.

"Alright let's do this," Lung said.

"Brook get ready," Nikki told me as I pinched the edge of my bandana.

"Greetings young one, I hope you're ready for battle," The Ninjask said as she readied her claws.

"I'm more than ready," I told her as I lifted the bandanna up to cover my mouth.

"Alright Ninjask, use fury swipes," Lung said as the Ninjask charged right at me, claws lifted high.

"Brook, boost yourself into the trees," Nikki said as I aimed my arms downwards and blasted upwards. I boosted up just enough to grab onto the tree. With a bit of help from my psychic powers, I easily pulled myself up onto the branch.

I crouched down on the branch and grabbed a smaller nearby branch to steady myself. I ignored the increased amount of rain that was landing on my head, a consequence of getting above some of the leaves that were blocking it. I glared down at the Ninjask who was slicing through the spot where I had been standing in just a moment ago.

She was fast, but not fast enough.

"Ninjask, keep up the assault," Lung called as Ninjask turned around and started dashing up towards me.

"Brook, use confusion," Nikki said as I was already taking aim with my free arm.

I gathered my power and…

I blinked as the sight of the Ninjask was overlaid by that human. He was on the ground, and one of my arms was out, grabbing his collar. My other hand was pulled back ready to…

"Brook, teleport!" Nikki called, breaking me out of my stupor.

I blinked again as the vision faded. The Ninjask was right in my face and ready to bring her claw down on me. I reached into my power and moved myself to a nearby branch. I stretched my arms out, trying to balance myself on the narrower branch as the Ninjask turned and started rushing at me again.

"Brook," I heard Nikki call from below. "Wait for Ninjask to get closer and then teleport above them,"

I smiled at Ninjask as I guessed where Nikki was going with this. I waited until she right in my face before teleporting.

Now Ninjask was probably expecting me to teleport far above her, giving me plenty of space to fire off a ranged attack. Far away enough to have plenty of time to dodge.

I instead teleported right above her. I was on my back with my head up, my left leg curled up and my right leg extended outwards.

"Ninjask, dodge!" Lung called out as my opponent slowly turned around.

"Brook, mental blow," Nikki said as I fueled psychic energy into my right leg and swung it backwards, my heel digging into Ninjask's back as her wings stopped and she was sent crashing downwards. I aimed my arms downwards and slowed my fall until I landed next to my downed opponent.

"You okay?" I asked as I crouched down next to her. Both Nikki and Lung trainer rushed over to us as Ninjask tried to flap her wings.

"I believe that I am beaten," She said as Lung reached her.

"Ninjask, are you okay?" He asked as she lifted up one of her claws.

"I'm fine," She said as her wings started beating just a bit faster. She got off the ground again started hovering next to Lung's head.

"I think it's fine if we call it here." He said to Nikki as he offered his outreached hand. "You win this one,"

"Thanks," Nikki said as he accepted the hand. "But are you really sure that you want to call it here? Ninjask still looks like they have a lot of fight left in them,"

Lung shook his head as he placed his hand on top of Ninjask's head.

"Ninja battles are decided by the first strike. I was always going to forfeit after the first hit, even if it wasn't a really good one like that one. Plus, I want to save Ninjask's strength for something else," He trailed off as he glanced at the trees overhead.

"Listen, I know you want to do the dramatic 'vague comment then look away', but you said something about a place to get out of the rain?" Laura asked as the rain around us started to pick up, breaking through the canopy and further wetting my hair.

"Oh, right," Lung said as he walked over to a tree that looked just a little bit bigger than the rest. He motioned for us to walk over as he hit the tree twice with his fist.

 _"What is he doing? Opening the door to his secret,"_ I started to say to Nikki as a part of the tree swung open to reveal a door. _"Base,"_

I made sure to ignore the look that I just knew that Nikki was giving me. Mostly by looking at the open chamber.

The door had opened to a hollowed-out chamber with no floor, but a ladder that led downwards.

"Come on, you can wait out the storm in here," Lung said as he got into the tree and jumped onto the ladder. Ninjask followed after him as he slid down into the dark.

Laura, Nikki, and I just sort of looked at each other for a second before all shrugging our shoulders in synch and following him down the hole.

* * *

The ladder had ended up leading to a large circular cavern with wooden walls, floor, and ceiling. There was a large table of to the side next to some wooden chairs. Opposite of that were some more chairs, mostly recliners and a bean bag or two on top of a red carpet. Opposite of the ladder was a small desk with a PC set up and a small chest below it. The kind of stuff you would expect to see in your average secret base.

The calligraphy wall scrolls, sword racks, and the shelves filled with scrolls labeled 'top secret', on the other hand, were not. I imagined that they were more Lung's personal touch.

"Can't believe people are still using the old secret bases," I said as I made myself comfortable on one of the reclining chairs. Laura sat on the recliner next to mine and raised an eyebrow at me.

"The old what?" She asked as she lifted her feet up.

 _"I'm going to have to ask the same question,"_ Brook asked as she sunk into the green beanbag chair she had claimed for herself.

"You don't know about secret bases?" Lung asked as he applied some medicine that he had taken out of the chest below the PC to his Ninjask. The pokémon was currently resting on the table, trying to bear it the best she could.

"She's not from Hoenn," I explained as Laura gave me a mild glare. I turned to her and motioned to the room around us. "Okay so, this is a secret base. They were kind of a big thing five or so years ago, but nowadays people don't really use them that much,"

"Oh," She Laura said as she sat back and looked up at the ceiling above us. "Are they all this…"

"Elaborate?" I finished for her as she gave me a weak nod. "Pretty much. Well, not sure I've ever seen a secret base with a sword rack on it, but aside from that it's pretty standard,"

"You must not know a lot of Ninjas then," Lung said as he looked over his pokémon before returning her into her ball. "Feel free to stick around until the storm ends, I'll be back when the rain stops,"

"Alright then," I said as he climbed up the ladder out of the base.

"You know…" Laura said as she glanced around the secret base. "I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing all the weird little bits of Hoenn,"

"I imagine that it would be the same with me and Kanto," I pointed out as Brook lifted her arm out of the beanbag chair.

 _"Honestly, all this stuff is equally weird for me. Humans are supposed to live in big buildings, not underground burrows,"_ She said as I remembered where we were heading after Lavaridge. I was pretty sure that Brook didn't know about Fortree's… unique architecture.

Wonder how she was going to take that.

"Changing the subject," Laura said as she leaned forward and folded her hands together before glancing at Brook. "Are you sure that Brook's okay?"

"Why do you ask?" I asked as I leaned forward and Brook popped her head out of the beanbag chair. I watched as she squirmed around a bit, trying to get out. I found myself fighting back a chuckle as I got up from my chair and walked over to help her out. I dug my hands into the hole and hooked my hands around her arms before pulling her out.

She puffed up her cheeks and huffed away from me.

 _"I could have made it out on my own,"_ She argued.

"Yeah, but could you have made it out without blasting a huge hole in Lung's stuff?" I asked as Brook tried to turn her head further away from me.

 _"Okay probably not,"_ She coincided as she looked up at me. _"Mind putting me down?"_

"Sure," I told her as I crouched down to put her on the wooden floor.

A big mistake.

The second she was out of my grasp, she dashed around me and jumped onto me so that she was sitting on my shoulder.

 _"I think I'll take this chair instead,"_ She said with a chirping laugh as she placed her hands on top of my head.

"You win this round," I told her as I got back up and took a seat in the reclining chair that I had been sitting in before. Despite the tight fit, Brook managed to nestle in nicely.

"So as I was saying," Laura said as Brook and I settled in. "Are you sure that Brook's alright? You didn't notice that she froze up during the fight? That's not like her,"

 _"Tell her that I got distracted by the rain,"_ Brook told me before I even had the chance to open my mouth.

"She says she got distracted by the rain," I said promptly, feeling a little bad about lying to Laura like this. That said, it really was Brook's secret more than mine. It would probably be better for her to open up about it so that there were no secrets between us, but I wasn't about to push her into that.

"Okay then," Laura said with a small frown. "But it's just… It feels like Brook's been acting a bit off all day. Like something's been distracting her," She explained as Brook and I quickly glanced at each other.

"I mean, I've noticed but I've already talked to Brook about it," I told her as Brook nodded from atop my head.

"Alright, but just keep an eye out for her, you're her trainer right?" She said with a wink.

"Sure… Do you think that Lung will mind if we eat in here?" I asked as I got out of my chair and reached into my bag. I took out the egg carrier and set it down on the table before taking it out.

"I mean, maybe?" Laura answered as she shrugged her shoulders. "You're the expert when it comes to secret bases, not me,"

"Expert? Secret bases were on the way out while I was growing up," I argued back as I carefully wiped down the eggshell with a special cloth. "This is the second secret base that I've ever been in,"

"That still makes one more then… do you guys hear that?" She asked as I also started to hear something coming from a bae section of the wall. It almost sounded like something moving around behind the wall.

The three of us shifted our heads and watched as a section of the wall shifted apart as two more kids dressed in the same ninja outfit as Lung walked out.

"Lung," The first of the Ninjas, a girl wearing her hair in a bushy black ponytail, announced as she walked into the base. "We're here to… who the heck are you guys?" She asked as she pointed to Laura and I.

"Um hi," I said as the second Ninja, a kid with short dark blue hair, walked into the base right behind the first Ninja.

* * *

"So lung's still right outside then," The ninja girl, Nene said as she sat at the table next to the other ninja, Evan, across from the three of us. Nikki still had the egg in his hands. Well, he had the egg container with the egg in, but that was close enough. "Great, that'll make it easier to get to him and beat some sense into him,"

"What do you mean?" Laura asked her.

"Nene thinks that Lung's doing something stupid," Evan explained as he rolled his hand around. "I mean… I think he's being dumb too, just not dumb enough to try to stop him,"

"Why what's he trying to do?" Nikki asked with me still sitting on his shoulders.

"Okay, so are you aware that this route is the one part of Hoenn that overlaps with Skarmory's natural range?" Nene asked as Nikki took out his pokédex and clicked through it for a bit.

"Well, what do you know," He said as he looked at a picture of a metal bird with red-tipped wings overlaid over a picture of the route. "So he wants to catch a Skarmory?"

"I don't get it, how is that stupid enough I try to stop him?" Laura asked as I found myself asking the same question.

"Well, the problem isn't that he wants to catch a skarmory…" Evan said before looking off to the side and letting out a sigh. "It's that he wants one Skarmory in particular,"

"Specifically, He wants to catch this Skarmory," Nene said as she reached into her ninja robes and took out an old photo. She set it down on the table and slid it towards us.

We all leaned forward and saw a picture of someone who looked like a younger Lung standing next to a Skarmory with a large scar over their nose.

 _"What happened to that bird?"_ I asked which Nikki quickly translated for me. Nene took a deep breath before taking explaining the story behind the photo.

"Lung's parents operate a pokémon rescue a bit east of here. From what Lung's told me, this skarmory was one of the pokémon they saved when he was a kid. Apparently he made a deal with it that he would catch it when he 'had grown strong' whatever that means,"

"So what's wrong with that?" Nikki asked as both of the other ninjas just sighed.

"The problem with that is that the scar nosed Skarmory is one of the toughest pokémon in all of route 113," Evan explained as both Laura and Nikki blanched.

I, on the other hand, was feeling a strange sense of respect for Lung that hadn't been there before.

" _Hope he catches them then,"_ I told Brook as I felt a sudden grin appear on my face.

"Brook no," Nikki said as both of the ninjas raised an eyebrow at my trainer. I wondered what it was that was so odd when I remembered that Nikki being able to hear me was considered odd.

 _"Oh right, I can do this now,"_ I sent out as a psychic broadcast. _"Need to remember to do that more often,"_

"Who said that?" Nene demanded as both her and Evan jumped out of their chairs and placed their hands on their swords. "Reveal yourselves,"

 _"Calm down, I've been here the whole time,"_

I broadcasted as I waved at them, getting their attention.

"The Kirlia?" Nene mumbled like it was really that unbelievable.

 _"Okay, so I know that pokémon using their psychic powers to talk to humans is not unheard of,"_ I pointed out with a huff.

"You do realize that the phenomenon is still considered insanely rare right?" Nikki asked as I shrugged.

 _"Come on, how rare could it be,"_ I argued as both of the ninjas sat back down and stared at me.

"This could be it," Nene mumbled almost too quietly for me to hear. "This could be how we snap Lung out of his dumb plan,"

"Okay so you're going to have to explain that to me," Nikki said as I glanced down at him.

 _"Sounds pretty clear to me,"_ I broadcasted. _"I can talk to the skarmory, get the real story, and then translate it for Lung,"_

"Are you sure you're up for it?" Nikki asked. "I mean, you would have to go talk to a possibly aggressive pokémon that resist all of your moves,"

 _"I'm sure I'll be able to handle it,"_ I assured him. _"But there's just one little thing that concerns me about your plan though,"_ I broadcasted as I looked up at the two ninjas.

"And what is your concern," Nene asked as she twitched a bit. Maybe speaking to a pokémon like this really was considered weird.

 _"What are you going to do if Lung's right and the Skarmory really did make the promise?"_ I asked as I could feel the sudden worry in both of the ninjas' heart's even with my muted empathy sense.

 _"Didn't think things through that much did you?"_ I asked with a smug grin on my face. _"Well, you'll have to think of something soon because I'm all for this plan,"_

"I'm sure we'll think of something," Nene reassured me we heard a crashing sound come from above us.

"Looks like it started," Evan said as everyone but me got to their feet.

 _"That's our cue Nikki,"_ I broadcasted as I tapped him on the head. _"Let's get out there,"_

"Right," He said with a nod as he set the egg container down on the table. "Can you watch the egg for a bit Laura?" He asked as the girl in question gave him a quick nod before he ran to the ladder and started climbing.

* * *

We emerged to a battle in the dwindling rain.

"Ninjask, keep up the pace," Lung said as his Ninjask dashed through the trees, a certain scarred Skarmory trying to maneuver through the same terrain. All three of them were dripping wet and soaked to the bone.

Based on the way that they kept cutting into the branches and leaves, it was pretty clear who was having the easier time.

"You're doing great Ninjask, just keep it up," He said again as I noticed that he had a pokéball in each hand.

 _"Okay then,"_ Brook messaged me personally as she got to her feet before jumping off my shoulder. _"I'm going to head up there and start asking some questions,"_

"Wait don't you think we should…" I tried to say as Brook aimed her hands downwards and boosted up into the trees. I watched as she landed on one of the branches in the same crouching position she had used in our battle with Lung.

She glanced down at me and gave me a thumbs up from up before looking back up and jumping from tree to tree to approach the fight.

"I really should just accept that I can either command her in battle or out of battle but not both," I mumbled to myself as I ran to keep up with her.

"Nicholas, what are you doing here?" Lung demanded as I caught up with him. "I thought you were staying inside until the storm passed?"

"I was and then…" I trailed off as I felt a burst of wind on either side of me.

"And then I recruited him to our cause," Nene said as she walked up from behind me. "We'll soon have the truth, and once we have that, you can give on this ridiculous quest of yours,"

"Technically you recruited Brook," I pointed out as I pointed upwards to the small Kirlia above us. "I'm just here because she's my pokémon,"

I glanced up at the Kirlia in question who was standing on one of the branches and chirping away while waving at the two combatants.

"I thought I told you two that I didn't want any help," Lung said with a pout. "I swore to catch that Skarmory with the power of me and my pokémon alone,"

"Brook's not here to help you catch that Skarmory," I explained as Skarmory landed on a nearby branch. Ninjask glanced down at Lung before letting out some worried buzzing. "She's just here to talk to the Skarmory and ask a few questions,"

"I see," Lung said as he looked up at Ninjask. "Ninjask hang back for now,"

The bug type gave a quick nod before descending downwards and watching the interaction above with the rest of us.

"You know…" I said with mild hesitation. "As much as I know that they're talking about what happened with Skarmory and Lung…"

"The fact that it's being said in a series of chirps, squawks, and other bird noises is messing with you?" Evan guessed correctly.

"Wait…" Lung said before turning to the two of us. "What did you say they were talking about?"

Before we could tell him, we were interrupted by a loud screech. We looked up again and watched as Skarmory let out a deafening cry and started gesturing wildly with their wings.

"I guess that Brook's making progress," I said as Brook sat down on the branch and made the occasional nod every few seconds. After a few more screeches later, Brook let out a few chirps before getting to her feet and jumping downwards.

"So what did you find out?" I asked Brook as she let loose a weak confusion to slow down her fall right before she hit the ground. Above us, the Skarmory had taken the chance to perch onto one of the branches above.

 _"Well the story's true,"_ Brook explained as she dusted a bit of soot off her skirt. _"Lung did meet this Skarmory years ago on that pokémon rescue and they did make a promise that Skarmory would come back to fight Lung. Something about lung having to prove his strength to him before he could join his team,"_

"Oh… So all of it is true then," I said as Nene and Evan both gasped in shock. I turned to the two of them. "So what are you guys going to do now?"

Despite the question, they were both too stunned to respond.

"Really?" lung said as he gave both of his fellow ninjas a flat look. "You don't think the first thing I did when I met this Skarmory was check to make sure that it was the right one?"

"Well based on your track record for rash action…" Nene trailed off in a melodic tone.

"I try to catch a pokémon with my bare hands once and no one ever lets it go," He muttered before turning to Ninjask and giving her a nod. The Ninjask shot up into the trees again as Skarmory's eyes narrowed. Ninjask buzzed and bared her claws as Skarmory's spread his wings and jumped off the branch.

Brook jumped onto my back and nestled herself in to watch the battle that would soon take place overhead.

"Alright Ninjask, same plan as last time," Lung said as he reached his arm out. "Keep mobile and don't give Skarmory a clear shot at you,"

Ninjask nodded and buzzed in agreement before dashing to the side and flying through the trees as Skarmory tried to make his way through the trees to get at her.

What followed was almost a dance. Ninjask zipped through the trees, taking advantage of her amazing maneuverability to turn through the trees at angles that Skarmory had no chance of maneuvering about.

The steel type might have had a higher top speed, but in such cramped conditions it wasn't going to do him any favors.

Normally a much up like this would have been a one-sided affair. There was just a single issue with that.

"Okay Ninjask, go in for another fury swipe!" Lung called as Ninjask dashed forward with Skarmory right on her heels. She passed underneath a tree branch before pulling up and over the branch, flying upside down for a second before she straightened herself out and sliced at Skarmory's back as he flew past her.

Skarmory just kept flying like it hadn't felt a thing.

One combatant was too mobile to hit and the other was too sturdy to be taken out. We were stuck at an impasse, where neither side could win.

Except not really because all Skarmory needed was a single good hit in and this fight was over.

I had to give Lung credit, this fight was basically over the first time Ninjask made a mistake and that hadn't happened yet. In fact with how skillfully Ninjask was moving through the trees, I wondered just how much of Brook's victory over her was due to sheer unpredictability.

 _"This is getting weirdly boring,"_ Brook messaged me and I found myself unable to disagree. _"Does Ninjask not know any other moves?"_

"Probably not," I whispered to her. "At least none that would work better,"

We watched for a little while longer until I noticed that Brook moving out of the corner of my eye. I glanced down at her and saw Brook rubbing her stomach.

 _"We never did eat lunch, did we?"_ She said with a grumble.

"No, no we didn't," I told her as I went back to watching to the fight above, trying to ignore my own hunger. "We'll eat after this is over,"

We both starred up silently as Ninjask landed another hit on Skarmory to no apparent effect. It was probably just my imagination, but I was pretty sure that both of our stomachs growled at the sight.

 _"You know,"_ Brook said as she reached her hand out and watched as a few drops landed on it. _"The rain's pretty much stopped at this point,"_

"Yeah it was a pretty short storm after all," I pointed out as he rain came to a complete stop.

We slowly glanced at each other.

 _"Lunch now?"_ I asked with my burgeoning psychic powers.

 _"Lunch now,"_ Brook answered back with her own, stronger, psychic powers. She dashed back to the tree and jumped down as I followed after her.

"Hey Laura," I said as I reached the bottom of the staircase.

"Hey, how the battle going?" She asked as sat down on a chair with a book in her hands.

"Slowly, very slowly," I told her as I grabbed my bag.

 _"Slow enough to just eat now,"_ Brook said before I quickly translated for her.

"What about the rain?" She asked as she glanced at my clothes. "Rain's over isn't it?"

"It was a quick storm," I simply told her as I grabbed my bag and Laura got to her feet and did the same. Brook got back to the ladder and boosted upwards to the entrance as Laura and I followed after her.

* * *

"How, just how?" Milk asked as we sat around in a circle and watched the battle overhead.

"I have no idea," I told her as Khesen's eyes narrowed.

In the time it had taken for Nikki to emerge from the secret base, set up and prepare lunch and for everyone else to get out of their pokéballs and sit down to eat, the battle had kept going with no apparent changes.

"Does she not have any other attacks?" Milk asked as she took a bite out of her food.

"If she did, she would have used them by now," Khesen added, his food in his lap. Overhead, Ninjask flew past Skarmory again, landing yet another blow to no effect. "Although… there is one move that could be useful…"

"What do you mean?" I asked as I shifted closer to him.

"It was something that I heard about once from a bug type. An attack that grows in power with every hit. I wonder why the trainer does no use it,"

"No idea, let me ask," I told him as I looked over at Nikki who was watching the fight too. _"Hey Nikki,"_

"Yes Brook," He said as he kept his eyes on the fight.

 _"Khesen says theirs a bug type move that gets stronger each time it hits. Can you ask Lung why he's not using it?"_ I asked as I glanced over at Lung whose eyes were locked onto the fight above.

Nikki blinked twice before digging into his pocket and taking out his pokédex. A few clicks later, he was staring at the screen with a blank look on his face.

"Fury cutter," He mumbled as he presumably read the screen. "A bug type move that starts out weak but doubles in power with every successful hit,"

"That sounds like a pretty good idea for this kind of thing," Laura said as she looked up and saw Ninjask getting another hit in. If that hit's power had doubled with every hit…

"Well the fight would have been over by now," I said as Skarmory laughed off the hit.

"I wonder why that trainer and Ninjask don't use it," Milk asked as Skarmory let out a roar of anger and flapping his wings in place. We all watched as sharp winds sliced through a bunch of tree branches and hit Ninjask at full force.

"Ninjask!" Lung said as he dashed forward to catch the falling pokémon. Ninjask let out a weak buzz as Lung took out his pokéball and recalled her.

Skarmory flapped down and landed on a low branch right in front of Lung and started speaking.

"Well though young warrior," He screeched. "Once again you have faced me in battle and once again I can see that you and your pokémon grow in strength. Keep on this path, and I know that one day you will be able to match me in battle,"

He kept going, saying a few more things about 'pride' and 'inner strength' as the same though probably filled all of our heads.

"He does realize that Lung can't understand a word he's saying right?" I asked aloud as I messaged Nikki the same thing.

"No," Milk said.

"No way,' Nikki added.

"Not a chance," Khesen finished.

We kept watching as Skarmory finished his speech and flew away into the parting storm clouds above.

"Think I should have offered to translate for him?" I asked and messaged as Lung walked over to us.

"Well the trainer probably would have wanted to know what it was that the pokémon was saying to him," Khesen pointed out.

"I don't think it would have made much a difference," Nikki said as he pointed at the approaching Lung and the two other ninjas right behind him. Specifically the giant grin on Lung's face. Nikki waved at the approaching Ninja and waved at him.

"Did you guys see that?" Lung said as he stood in front of Nikki. "Ninjask and I managed to last long enough for you guys to almost finish lunch by the time the battle was done,"

"Yeah, we saw," Nikki said as he winced at Lung. "Hey Lung… have you ever heard of a move called fury cutter?"

The smile on Lung's face was wiped away in a second as he grimaced. Behind him both of the other ninjas wore a pair of matching smirks.

"I'll let it go since this is the first time you've ever asked me," He said before saying an almost practiced sounding statement. "Fury cutter has a charge up time and requires timing to exact for a fast-paced battle like this,"

"I see," Nikki said as he glanced over at Khesen who just stared at him back.

"I only ever heard of the attack, I never saw it in person," He explained which I quickly translated for him. Nikki just shrugged as he went back to Lung.

"So if fury cutter's out, do you have any other moves that could work, because, despite the name, I don't think fury swipes are going to cut it for you?" Nikki asked as Lung let out a burst of weak laughter.

"Yeah, but Ninjask doesn't learn a lot of moves that work well against Skarmory. The only move that Ninjask has that can match fury swipe's speed is slash,"

"Well, what's wrong with that?" Laura asked. "I mean slash is a really good move. It's one of the most common moves used in tournaments,"

"Yeah, but Ninjask still doesn't have the move down just yet," He explained as he glanced down at the pokéball in his hand. "Once we have slash mastered, Skarmory's going down,"

Lung laughed as he placed his pokéball away.

"I'm sure he is," Nikki said as he got to his feet and started putting away the things we used to make lunch.

"Well, I'm sure you would know," Lung said as he glanced over at the three of us. "After all, you've already caught a bunch of pokémon,"

Nikki let out a violent cough as the three of us couldn't help but smirk at.

"Should I tell him?" I asked Milk and Khesen.

"Maybe…" Khesen said.

"I say you go for it," Milk said as she let out a laugh.

"Alright then," I told them as I turned towards Lung who was beaming at Nikki who was laughing nervously. I approached the pair with a cute smile on my face and started broadcasting. _"Oh Nikki didn't catch any of us,"_

"What do you mean," Lung asked as he leaned down to talk to me. A little too close to be honest.

 _"Not sure why you need to get so close but…"_ I broadcasted as I slightly turned away from him. _"But like I said, Nikki never actually caught any of us,"_

"Then how does he have so many pokémon then?" Lung asked as he motioned over to Milk and Khesen.

 _"Well Milk came with us because she had to leave her home island of Dewford,"_ I explained while gesturing to Milk who gave a quick nod. _"And I kind of just talked Khesen into coming with us,"_ I told him as Khesen gave his own quick nod. _"Aside from that, we took the egg as a favor for one of Nikki's family members,"_

"Yeah, I've never actually… caught, any of my pokémon," Nikki confessed as he focused his eyes on the work to do. "It just kind of… worked out that way,"

"Oh," Lung said as he took out a second pokéball from his clothes. "I guess I have one over you then," He said as he tossed the ball out and released his second pokémon.

"Hey Lung…" Nikki said as he glanced down at the Pokémon in question.

"Yes Nicholas?" Lung replied.

"You've been having trouble with catching a steel type right?" Nikki asked.

"That is correct,"

"Then why have you not used the perfectly good fire type standing there!" He almost yelled as he motioned to the six-tailed red fox who tilted her head to the side upon Nikki pointing at her. She glanced over at us before trotting in our directions.

"So any of you guys want to fill me in on what's going on," She said as she let out a yawn. "I was sleeping in my pokéball right before this,"

"Our trainer wants to know why Lung's not using a fire type to try to catch Skarmory," I explained as the Vulpix glanced over at Lung and let out a huff.

"Lung's a good trainer and a good friend. But there's no way I'm getting caught up in whatever mess He and Ninjask have gotten themselves in with this Skarmory," She explained as she glanced over at the trainer in question.

"Yeah, I can see why," I chuckled as I saw Nikki walking towards us.

"Brook, can you ask Vulipx why she…"

 _"She wants no part in their shenanigans,"_ I broadcasted as both Lung and his Ninjask flinched. Nikki glanced over at the pair and then at the Vulpix who let out a yawn.

"Yeah, I can see that," He said as Lung opened his mouth to protest but fell silent instead. Both of the other two Ninjas laughed as Vulpix walked over back to her trainer and yipped at him in amusement.

* * *

 _"Sure hope things work out for Lung,"_ Brook broadcasted from atop my shoulders as we neared the end of the route. The soot overhead was finally letting up and the area around us was getting cleaner by the second.

"I'm sure he'll catch that Skarmory," I told Brook as I stepped on a patch of grass without kicking up a small cloud of soot.

"Hey I think we're getting near the split in the road," Laura said as she pointed to the distance. I strained my neck up to see what she was talking about.

What did you know… there really was a fork in the road coming up.

Nikki and Laura ran to the fork as I did my best to hang on until we reached the end.

"Yeah, this is it," Nikki said as he reached into his pocket. A few clicks on his pokénav later and he was looking between the two paths. "So now all that's left is to decide which way we're going to go,"


End file.
